Should the Atlanta Braves keep or trade Julio Teheran?
By Clint Manry
Not Bad, eh?
Being that it was his first start on Monday afternoon, Julio Teheran pitched very well. His overall line for the day really doesn’t do justice to how sharp he was on the mound.
As mentioned earlier, the Braves took the loss; but it wasn’t from a bad outing by Julio Teheran. Here’s his line from Monday: 3.0 IP / 3 hits / 3 R / 2 ER / 0 BB / 4 SO / 1 HR / 6.00 ERA
Don’t be disappointed by the ERA or the homer given up, as Teheran’s short work of three innings inflates his ERA. He wasn’t perfect on Monday, but the fact that he didn’t walk anyone is very promising, especially when we look a little deeper into the game log, which is what we will do.
1st Inning
3 SO / 2 H / 2 ER / 2B / HR
- 5 batters faced
- struck out the side
The beginning of the game started well for Teheran, as he got designated-hitter Jake Marisnick to strikeout. It then quickly started to look like a typical Julio start from the past few seasons when Houston’s Myles Straw hit a ground-rule double to center field, followed by a 2-run home run by left fielder Derek Fisher to put the Astros up 2-0 early.
Teheran was able to regroup and get Tyler White to strikeout, plus got first baseman A.J. Reed to strikeout as well.
All in all, Teheran got roughed up a bit, but was able to limit the damage. He stayed around the middle of the plate a little too much in that first inning, while also leaving some pitches up. Not too bad… and again: 1st ‘real’ outing.
2nd Inning
1 SO / 0 H / 0 ER / 1 fly-out / 1 line-out
The second inning was much quicker for Teheran, as he would strike out Houston’s catcher Max Stassi and get right fielder Kyle Tucker and second baseman Nick Tanielu to fly-out to left and line-out to centerfield respectively. The quick work was impressive by Teheran, but once again he stayed right in the middle of the zone; and when he did try and move out of the middle of the zone – he would leave his pitches up. But you can’t complain with results, a three up-three down frame is always a good inning.
3rd Inning
0 SO / 1 H / 1 R / 2 fly-outs / 1 ground-out
- 4 batters-faced
- 5 pitches (4 strikes / 1 ball)
In his final inning, Teheran once again did a nice job of getting out of a potential jam. The first batter of the inning, Houston’s Jack Mayfield, would swing at Teheran’s first pitch – a pitch right down the middle – and would fly-out to right field. One pitch and one out.
Next up was Jake Marisnick again, and Monday’s designated-hitter for the Astros would drive the first pitch to left field for a single.
Marisnick would steal second on Teheran and come around to score after the next batter, Myles Straw, hit a soft grounder and Freddie Freeman would commit an error.
On the grounder, Braves third baseman Austin Riley made the play to get Straw out at first, but Freddie Freeman’s throwing error cost Teheran an unearned run.
The last batter that Teheran faced was Houston’s left fielder Derek Fisher. Fisher flew-out to center field, concluding his outing.
So what does this mean? Anything?