SAN FRANCISCO – When Julio Teheran faces the Angels in Monday's series opener at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, it will be the 26th different team he's faced in his major league career and 24th stadium. The Braves veteran will try to make sure his performance mirrors his previous road starts this season rather than many of his other starts against teams in the West.
Teheran is 1-4 with a majors-worst 8.40 ERA and .951 opponents’ OPS in six home starts this season, compared to 2-0 with a stingy 0.71 ERA and .514 opponents’ OPS in four road starts, the second-lowest road ERA among major league qualifiers. It’s one of the most severe home-road splits you are ever likely to see more than one-fourth of the way through a season.
“Obviously that’s the way I want to keep pitching on the road,” Teheran said, “but at home, still need to make a couple of adjustments like I did last outing. We’re getting there, making adjustments and working every day to get better.”
Teheran is coming off just his second good home start of the season – he pitched six innings Wednesday against the Pirates at SunTrust and allowed only four hits and three runs, all of which were unearned. He had given up eight hits, nine runs and two homers in three innings six days earlier in a home loss to the Blue Jays.
He’s allowed no earned runs in three of his four road starts, all in the Eastern Time Zone. On Monday, Teheran toes the mound again in the region of the country where he frequently has pitched like something far from a two-time All-Star. Earlier in his career, Teheran had several of his worst starts in the West and complained of not being able to grip the baseball properly in the chillier, often dryer conditions than he’s used to in the eastern half of the country.
“I remember, like, the first year I was having a problem with the grip,” said Teheran, who actually mentioned grip problems after West Coast starts in more than one season. “But that’s something that … I just found a way to get my grip. You’ve got to survive here. I know it’s hard to grip the ball but now it just seems like it’s normal to me. I don’t think about it anymore.”
In 16 career road starts against National League West teams, Teheran is 4-7 with a 4.85 ERA and 18 homers allowed in 94 2/3 innings. And in his only interleague start on the West Coast, an August 2014 game at Seattle in his second full season, gave up nine hits, six runs and two homers in six innings. Teheran made his first All-Star team that year and had a 2.72 ERA in his other 32 starts. His only other road start against an AL West team came in Texas.
On Monday, Teheran will make his first start against the other team from metropolitan Los Angeles – the Angels play in Anaheim, in Orange County south of Los Angeles proper — and he’ll aim for far better results than he’s had pitching on the road against the team that actually plays in Los Angeles, the Dodgers.
Teheran is 0-3 with a 6.50 ERA in three starts at Dodger Stadium, where he’s given up five homers in 18 innings. The Angels might be without Mike Trout, widely viewed as the best player in the majors, who was hitting .342 with 16 homers and a 1.215 OPS before Sunday, when he sprained his left thumb diving back to second base.
The next-highest homer total on the team belonged to aging Albert Pujols, who was batting .249 with six home runs before Sunday and was only three shy of 600 career homers. The Angels were tied with the Pirates for 26th in the majors in OPS (.695) before Sunday and tied for 21st in home runs with 51 — four more than the Braves had before Sunday.
This will be the first time Teheran and the Braves have faced shortstop Andrelton Simmons since he was traded to the Angels in November 2015. Simmons, 27, is still playing extraordinary defense and is having his best offensive season, batting .283 with four homers, 20 RBIs and a .341 OBP in 51 games before Sunday.
“It’s going to be fun watching him play a game,” Teheran said. “It’s been two years that he’s been with the Angels. It’s going to be fun to get to talk to him and pitch to him. I haven’t talked to him since he left, but we are really good friends and I know we’re going to be happy to see each other.”
Besides his road struggles against the Dodgers, Teheran has had more than his share of difficulties elsewhere in the West. He has a 5.51 ERA in three starts at San Francisco’s AT&T Park, where he’s allowed four homers in 16 1/3 innings in one of the majors’ most pitcher-friendly stadiums. He’s given up five homers in 20 innings at San Diego’s Petco Park, another park that favors pitchers. (He’s only allowed 10 other hits there and has a 3.60 ERA at Petco.)
Surprisingly, given his home-run totals at the NL West’s more pitching-favorable ballparks, he has respectable results at the hitter’s haven that is Colorado’s Coors Field, where Teheran has allowed a .309 average but no homers in 17 1/3 innings. He has a 4.15 ERA in three starts at Coors. At the other hitter-friendly NL West park, Arizona’s Chase Field, he’s given up four homers in 23 innings and has a 4.70 ERA in four starts.
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