PHOENIX — The Braves have recalled Matt Wisler from Triple-A Gwinnett to start Thursday’s series finale against the Diamondbacks, as expected.
In the meantime, the pitching matchup Wednesday for the third game in the series is an attractive one, with Julio Teheran (3-9, 2.90 ERA) facing Zack Greinke (11-4, 4.21). Two accomplished pitchers whose seasons haven’t gone quite as planned, both having spent recent stints on the 15-day disabled list.
Teheran will make his second start since returning from a nearly three-week DL stint for a right-lat strain. He’s worked five innings or fewer in each of his past two starts due to the injury and a 90-pitch limit in his first start coming off the DL, and it’s been five weeks since Teheran pitched more than five innings in an MLB game.
The right-hander is 3-4 with a 2.49 ERA in nine road starts this season, compared to 0-5 with a 3.22 ERA in 13 home starts. He’s received 3.7 support runs per nine innings pitched on the road and just 2.1 support runs per nine innings at home.
Teheran is 2-3 with a 2.88 ERA and .215 opponents’ average in his past 10 starts, including 2-1 with a 2.33 ERA and .194 OA in four road starts.
In six career starts against Arizona, he’s 3-1 with a 2.12 ERA. He’s allowed two runs in each of his three starts at Chase Field, where he last pitched in June 2014 when he worked seven innings of five-hit ball in a win.
Against Teheran, Arizona’s Jean Segura is 5-for-15 with a homer, Jake Lamb is 3-for-5, Wellington Castillo is 1-for-7 and Paul Goldschmidt is 1-for-14 with seven strikeouts. Hot-hitting slugger Yasmany Tomas hasn’t faced him.
Greinke has had two good starts and one terrible start in three games – all on the road — since returning from a six-week stint on the DL for a left oblique strain, resulting in an 8.59 ERA and .355 opponents’ average in that three-game span.
He gave up five hits and three runs in six innings of an Aug. 9 win at Yankee Stadium, then got bombed for 10 hits, nine runs and three homers in just 1 2/3 innings of an Aug. 14 loss at Boston.
Greinke rebounded from that Beantown beating to pitch seven solid innings Friday at San Diego, allowing seven hits, two runs and two walks with eight strikeouts and getting no decision in an Arizona loss.
He’s 6-1 with a 3.41 ERA in 10 home starts, compared to 5-3 with a 5.04 ERA in 10 road starts. He has 65 strikeouts with 10 walks in 63 1/3 innings at home, and 43 strikeouts with 14 walks in 60 2/3 innings on the road.
Greinke is 2-1 with a 2.61 ERA and .214 opponents’ average in six career starts against the Braves, with 48 strikeouts and eight walks in 38 innings. This will mark the first time he’s faced them twice in the same season, after he limited the Braves to seven hits, two runs and one walk with eight strikeouts in six innings of a May 6 win in Atlanta.
Against Greinke, Nick Markakis is 6-for-22 with a homer, Matt Kemp is 5-for-23 with a homer, Gordon Beckham is 4-for-16 with a homer, Freddie Freeman is 2-for-15 with seven strikeouts and Ender Inciarte is 0-for-11.
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