Atlanta Braves: Julio Teheran bests Jacob deGrom, Ozzie Albies stays on top
After losing the first two games of their series with the New York Mets, the Atlanta Braves won the final two games, including Sunday night’s 7-3 victory.
Julio Teheran has been a lightning rod for scrutiny for Atlanta Braves fans over the past couple of seasons, but on Sunday night, he outdueled 2018 Cy Young Award winner, Jacob deGrom.
Teheran went six innings, allowing just an earned run, while striking out six and walking only one.
While the sample size is small, Teheran’s season has been OK so far. Take away the fifth inning in Colorado and Teheran’s season is really good.
More on him later…
deGrom wasn’t terrible, but his command was uncharacteristically off, as he allowed four walks. He had allowed only three walks on the season.
Nick Markakis hit a home run for the second straight game, hitting a bomb to right field in the second inning.
Josh Donaldson also hit a home run in his second straight game, which was a laser to left-center field.
Donaldson added an RBI-single in the eighth.
Don’t look now, but Donaldson’s luck is starting to turn in his favor. He was hitting balls hard earlier in the season with nothing much to show for it.
In his last five games, he has four doubles, two home runs, and three walks.
Charlie Culberson added a pinch-hit two-run home run off Justin Wilson in the sixth inning.
Considering how the first two games went, with the knowledge that deGrom awaited tonight, this was a big win — or as big as a win can be this early in the season.
My three takeaways from Sunday’s game:
Ozzie on top
With the combination of Ender Inciarte struggling and Ozzie Albies showing signs of being able to hit right-handed pitching more consistently, manager Brian Snitker chose to move Albies to leadoff against both righties and lefties.
Albies managed two hits in five at-bats and has hit .282 against right-handers this season, after hitting .231 last season.
Who knows if Albies can sustain his production against righties the rest of the season, but if he does … lookout.
Albies-Donaldson-Freeman-Acuna-Markakis could be quite daunting.
Is this the real Julio?
Like I wrote above, take away a couple of homers allowed in Colorado, and Julio Teheran’s season line would look very impressive.
Buster Olney spoke to Teheran after his start and made note of the two noticeable changes Teheran made in the offseason.
The first was the weight-training program he worked through, but the second is the one that has been most crucial and that is eliminating the windup and working exclusively in the stretch.
Teheran looks more comfortable and confident.
His velocity is still good, topping out in the low 90s with movement.
Nicky is proving us wrong
Count me in the camp that was terribly disappointed that Nick Markakis was going to be the Atlanta Braves right fielder this season.
I have always liked Markakis, but it seemed like last offseason was the time to pounce on somebody younger and better.
Through 55 at-bats, Markakis is hitting .351 with two home runs and 13 runs batted in.
Next. A price drop for Kimbrel?. dark
Hopefully with additional rest this year, Markakis can avoid the late season collapse he dealt with last year.