Did Atlanta Braves Julio Teheran Find His Mojo in Philly?
Aug 2, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Atlanta Braves starting pitcher
Julio Teheran(49) pitches during the first inning of game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: John Geliebter-USA TODAY Sports
The incident happened on Sunday, and perhaps we can thank rookie third baseman Maikel Franco of the Phillies for making it happen.
First inning. Julio Teheran pitching – on the road, where he’s had monumental difficulties for the majority of the season. Hitters were scalding him at roughly a .333 clip.
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It took 2 pitches to get Cesar Hernandez to line out to RF. All right – hit pretty well, but at least it was at Nick Markakis. Six pitches more and Odubel Herrera flied out to left.
That brought up Franco. On a 1-1 count, Franco kills a ball – way deep, but more-or-less comfortably foul. He watches it. He lingers. The radio pair of Jim Powell and Don Sutton notice this. A “nice long strike.” They note that he took his time getting back into the box to get ready for the next pitch.
That next pitch was a fastball up at his chin.
“Admire this!” was Powell‘s pithy comment.
Final pitch of the sequence: slider away. Franco flailed. Missed, of course. Strike three.
There’s a bit of attitude coming back.
Just A Little More
In the second inning, Ryan Howard led off by doing what he often does to the Braves – a double off the wall.
The next hitter, Domonic Brown, dove in and fouled one off. At that point Teheran decided to reclaim the plate for good – and hit him.
That’s not unusual. Brown was the 8th HBP for Teheran this season (12th in baseball) after dropping down to just 4 whacks last year. He was 4th in the majors with 13 HBP’s in 2013.
But given the circumstances, it appeared that the Phils were trying to dig in and tee off on him – but this time, Julio seemed to say to himself “that’s it – no more”.
Road Woes… to Road Warrior?
The Phillies did score that inning as a result of those two base-runners. But Teheran then scattered just 6 more hits on the day (7 innings while K’ing 7 and walking no one). Only one of those additional hits was for extra bases.
For a pitcher struggling so mightily on the road (over 7 ERA before that game; now 6.75), that was a substantial change.
On the year, Teheran has now just three road starts in which he’s yielded 2 runs or less. 2 of those came against tonight’s opponent – the Marlins. The other was Sunday in Philadelphia.
Teheran will need that mojo tonight. The Braves will be hard-pressed to score at all against Jose Fernandez.
But maybe the Marlins will face the same kind of difficulty against a pitcher that may have a new attitude.
So next time you see Maikel Franco… tell him “thanks.”