ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A stunning road scoreless streak by Braves pitchers was snapped in the eighth inning Wednesday night, but the road winning streak was extended to seven games with a 5-2 win against the Rays to complete a two-game sweep at Tropicana Field.
Julio Teheran had his second consecutive splendid start and Nick Markakis had a three-run homer for the Braves, who improved to 21-14. They’ve swept their past two road opponents, the Mets and Rays, sandwiched around being swept by the Giants in three games at SunTrust Park.
Teheran allowed just four hits and no walks with seven strikeouts in six innings, and Sam Freeman pitched a perfect seventh that increased the Braves’ road scoreless streak to 35 innings, five more than the 1992 team’s previous franchise record for the modern era (since 1900).
The streak and a run of three consecutive road shutouts ended on Wilson Ramos’ two-out, two-run single in the eighth inning off reliever A.J. Minter. The Rays had loaded the bases with one out when Peter Moylan gave up consecutive singles and a walk.
The Braves got a run in the second and blew the game open with a four-run third inning capped by Markakis’ three-run homer off left-hander Ryan Yarbrough. Markakis, 34, hit his seventh homer in 35 games, after hitting eight homers in 160 games last season. The last time he hit as many as 15 was 2011, and his only 20-homer seasons were in 2007 (career-high 23) and 2008 (20).
Charlie Culberson and Ozzie Albies had consecutive singles to start the third inning and Ronald Acuna was hit by a pitch to load the bases with none out. Freddie Freeman followed with a sacrifice fly before Markakis homered to right-center to push the lead to 5-0.
After taking a no-hitter to the seventh inning of his previous start Thursday against the Mets at New York, Teheran didn’t give up a hit until the fourth inning Wednesday. And after C.J. Cron singled and Matt Duffy doubled to start the fourth and put two Rays in scoring position with none out, Teheran worked out of the jam with two strikeouts and an inning-ending ground-out.
That escape preserved a 5-0 lead and extended Braves pitchers’ road scoreless streak to 31 innings, surpassed the previous modern-era franchise record.
Teheran is 3-1 with a 1.54 ERA in his past six starts and has allowed just six hits and two walks with 13 strikeouts in 13 scoreless innings over his past two starts.
The Braves scored their first run in the second inning when Markakis hit a leadoff single and scored on a two-out single by Ender Inciarte, snapping his 0-for-19 skid.
Inciarte added another single in the fourth inning and had two stolen bases to raise his majors-leading total to 15, on pace to obliterate last season’s career-high 22, which he could surpass well before the All-Star break.
