Teheran Pitches Well, Atlanta Braves Fail to Support, Fall to KC 5-1

On Most Nights, We’d Celebrate a Fine Teheran Outing, but once again, subtle failures doom Braves

A spinning opposite field single misplayed into two extra bases.  Two balls that might have been out of the park miss by inches in one case, and run up against a gale in the other.  A muffed routine pickup in the outfield is parlayed into another base.  Hunter Cervenka‘s fabulous run comes to an end.  Instant replay calls once again go against Atlanta.  The offense fails to put much of anything together (again), and a fine pitching performance goes by the wayside again.

Julio Teheran threw 71 strikes in 108 pitches, scattering 4 hits and giving up just a single earned run over seven innings.  He worked hard and got great results, but the Royals broke open a close game in the 8th inning and sent the Braves out to their 26th loss against 8 victories Friday night, 5-1.

The Royals got a run early on an outfield fielding error by Jeff Francoeur that allowed a spinning single to get by him and into the corner.  He was getting a rare start at the position tonight (at least rare for this year) due to Nick Markakis handling the DH duties tonight.  Only the speed of Mallex Smith backing up the play probably kept the play from allowing Alcides Escobar from circling the bases to open the game as he did in the World Series last Fall.

That led to an unearned run.  Later on, Ender Inciarte took his eye off a routine single and failed to pick the ball up cleanly, allowing Lorenzo Cain to get to second base on the first hit allowed by Hunter Cervenka since him first Braves outing of the season.

That later became 3 earned runs, bumping his ERA from 0.00 to 2.53. Alexi Ogando wasn’t a lot better:  1 hit, 1 walk, 1 strikeout in 2/3 of an inning.

The Letter of the Law Rears an Ugly Head

That decisive 8th inning was extended via an curious call at second base on a double play.  Erick Aybar appeared to have his foot graze across the bag – like infielders have been doing for 100 years or more – on a slick 4-6-3 twin-killing.

Alas, the umpires ruled at the time that he’d missed second base (how that could have been seen in real time from that angle is beyond me).  So despite a new directive from Major League Baseball, the Braves once again lost an appeal.

The game truly wasn’t decided on this play (the next batter was retired to end the inning and the Braves weren’t hitting anyway), but there’s a principle here that was just messed up – again.

Here’s the Detroit News’ take on the new directive:

"The Tigers, like every major league team, got a memo from the league office last week informing them that the slide rule had been modified. Essentially, the memo said the umpires and review room will have more discretion to protect against outcomes of games being decided on a technicality of the rule. “Basically, if the runner doesn’t impede the middle infielder’s ability to turn the double play, it’s OK,” Ausmus said."

This suggests that it’s more about the slide rule than the neighborhood play, but the notion that “technicalities” should not determine the outcome of a play was clearly ignored for this call.

I expect there will be a lot more said on this play, but the Friday evening upshot is this:  Julio Teheran pitched great again… and he got no support.

Atlanta’s lone run came in the 7th via a single by Frenchy, another hit by Gordon Beckham, a nice sacrifice bunt by Mallex Smith, and sacrifice fly from Aybar.

Next: Bonds... Brave Barry Bonds.

Result:  another Braves’ loss.  Re-rack ’em for Saturday.