SAN DIEGO – Luiz Gohara said by the time he realized what he was doing wrong Monday night against the Padres, it was too late.
Pitching in his first game since May 23, the Braves’ rookie left-hander was charged with six hits, six runs and a walk while recording just two outs in the seven-run fifth inning of a series-opening 11-4 loss at Petco Park.
Gohara replaced Julio Teheran after the veteran starter walked the leadoff hitter in the fifth on four pitches and left the game with a jammed right thumb from Teheran's at-bat in the top of the inning.
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“Just got a little excited and speeded up the game,” Gohara said after the worst outing of his 10 major league games including six starts over two seasons. “And when I figured out I was speeding up, it was a little bit too late. I can learn from this and get ready for the next game.”
It matched Gohara’s career-worst six runs allowed in his major league debut Sept 6 against the Rangers, when he lasted four innings and gave up four hits and four walks.
But this time he only lasted two-thirds of an inning.
The six hits were the most off Gohara since he gave up four runs in six innings Sept. 29 at Miami in the final weekend of the 2017 season. But again, this time he got two outs.
It was his first appearance in 12 days, after Gohara went on the bereavement list and returned to his native Brazil to see his month, who is recovering from heart surgery.
“Just rusty as all get-out,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “But hadn’t faced competition in a while, so it’s just going to take a while to get him back going.”
The Braves had decided against sending Gohara out on a minor-league rehab assignment, since they thought he could help the bullpen right away by again providing a fresh arm capable of pitching multiple innings.
His last appearance before Monday was a May 23 start at Philadelphia, when Gohara pitched four innings and allowed four hits, two runs and four walks – encouraging for the Braves, considering he missed most of spring training with groin and ankle injuries and only pitched in four big-league games, all in relief, before May 23.
Snitker said Gohara’s side session in the bullpen Sunday went well and that he looked ready, so they went without a rehab assignment. But soon after he replaced Teheran following a four-pitch walk to start the seventh inning, Gohara ran into trouble and things escalated quickly.
Gohara gave up a double to the first batter he faced, Hunter Renfroe, then recorded two outs (one on a sac fly) before real trouble came calling. The next six batters produced a triple, single, walk (by opposing starter Clayton Richard) and three consecutive run-producing doubles. Gohara was replaced at that point by Peter Moylan, who induced a ground-out to end the inning.
But not before the damage was done as the Padres lead exploded from 3-2 to 10-2 in a half-inning.
Veteran catcher Tyler Flowers was asked if Gohara simply looked rusty and said, “I guess so; that’s more for him to answer than me. The command wasn’t great, having a hard time getting breaking balls opposite-arm side…. Lefties were doing a good job of hanging in there on some of those accidental front-door sliders. But we really couldn’t get very much to the other side of the plate, so they were able to narrow down what they were looking for as far as zones.”
It spiraled downward quickly for Gohara, and Flowers didn’t have any magic workds of advice that would permit Gohara to stop the bleeding.
“You can try and say some things, but it’s hard to try to reel someone back in,” he said. “The emotions can go quickly. I mean, it can happen even before they get in the game. So I don’t know, at the same time I’m sitting there struggling with him too, trying to think of different ways to try and get somebody out and ways to get ahead of (hitters) to hopefully get them to expand (their strike zone chasing) something. It just wasn’t going our way.”
