With the severe disparity in his home and road splits continuing to grown, Julio Teheran took his between-starts bullpen session to the SunTrust Park mound Sunday and focused on sharpening the slider that’s not been nearly as effective for him this season.
The Braves’ two-time All-Star pitcher threw under the watchful eye of pitching coach Chuck Hernandez while bullpen coach Marty Reed stood in the left-handed batter’s box during the session — not simulated-game conditions, but something more than a typical between-starts bullpen.
“He just wanted to change the look a little bit, he wanted to throw out there again,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He said it was good. It went fine. We’re able to do it. Neither team was hitting, so why not?”
Teheran considers the slider his best secondary pitch, but said he’s not located it well this season. He hoped that pitching on the stadium mound would help him get more comfortable at the Braves’ first-year ballpark and thought it would be beneficial working on his slider and other pitches with a batter in the box.
“I did it once a couple of years ago at Turner Field,” Teheran said. “It’s kind of different. Kind of gets you more in game mode. That’s what we were working on, like, game speed. … We didn’t want to throw a simulated game, but just kind of get that bullpen more like game-speed, making more pitches being aggressive instead of just throwing like it’s a bullpen.”
His next start has been pushed back from Tuesday to Wednesday, with knuckleballer R.A. Dickey moving to Tuesday’s start on short (three days’) rest. Both games are against the Pirates at SunTrust Park, and Snitker said he made the rotation move so that the knuckleballer would be slotted between Mike Foltynewicz and Teheran, the Braves’ hardest-throwing right-handers, to give hitters a different look.
Teheran is 2-0 with a sparkling 0.71 ERA in four road starts this season, but 1-4 with a majors-worst 10.50 ERA in five home starts. He has a .195 opponents’ average, .514 opponents’ OPS and no homers allowed in 25 1/3 innings on the road, but a bloated .337 opponents’ average, 1.031 opponents’ OPS and eight homers allowed in 24 innings at SunTrust Park.
So far, no one, including the pitcher, has an explanation for the severe, highly unusual divergence.
“Every stadium (mound) is different,” Teheran said. “Just kind of get used to it. It (SunTrust Park) feels a little different, but it’s normal, I don’t think it’s anything crazy that we need to look at. I’ve pitched in Cincinnati and in Colorado where the ball flies. It’s not like I have that on my mind. I pitched in Cincinnati and didn’t give up a homer.”
Teheran pitched six scoreless innings in his only career start at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park and has a 4.15 ERA and no homers allowed in three starts (17 1/3 innings) at Coors Field, the two most hitter-friendly stadiums in baseball.
Besides Turner Field, where he allowed 44 homers in 435 1/3 innings, the only other stadium where Teheran has allowed as many homers as he has already at SunTrust Park is Nationals Park, where he’s given up eight homers in 44 innings — 20 more innings than he’s pitched at SunTrust.
“Whenever you make your pitches, as a pitcher you’re going to be fine,” Teheran said. “It’s not like it’s the stadium or something.”
Snitker said he thinks the home-road splits will eventually even out some for Teheran after he makes more starts at SunTrust Park.
“I just don’t think it. … It’s a short sample size, I guess,” Snitker said.
