ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – There were concerns and raised eyebrows when Braves opening-day starter Julio Teheran began the season with back-to-back lousy performances.
But he has a 1.54 ERA and .177 opponents’ batting average in six starts since then, and let’s just say there are a fewer and fewer people worried so much about Teheran’s reduced fastball velocity or his home-road splits these days.
“The last time that I felt like this was two years ago when I made the All-Star team,” Teheran said after his second consecutive scoreless outing Wednesday night, when he held Tampa Bay to four hits with no walks and seven strikeouts in six innings of a 5-2 win at Tropicana Field.
After taking a no-hitter to the seventh inning of his last start Thursday at New York against the Mets, Teheran (3-1) didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning Wednesday. He worked out of a jam after giving up a single and double to start that inning, using two strikeouts and a ground-out to protect a 5-0 lead.
He’s allowed just six hits and two walks with 13 strikeouts in 13 scoreless innings over his past two starts.
“He just kind of picked up where he left off the other day,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He was really good. Strong effort.”
He’s a two-time former All-Star and this is his sixth full season in the majors, but Teheran is still just 27 and learning more and more about pitching and about preparing mentally and physically.
“It was hard work in the offseason and now I see that it’s paying off and I’m doing what I was working on,” he said.
That didn’t seem like it would be the case when Teheran allowed an alarming 10 hits, nine runs, six walks and four homers in eight innings over his first two starts.
But in six starts since he’s given up just 22 hits, six runs, 12 walks and two homers with 37 strikeouts in 35 innings.
“The command. The secondary pitches are really good,” Snitker said. “He’s using a lot of the new (analytics) stuff we have. He’s just doing a really good job, he’s just kind of spot-on with everything he throws. He’s elevating the ball pretty good. Just the overall crispness of everything he’s doing, he’s a lot sharper than he was.”
Teheran agreed that in addition to physical work he did in the offseason, he’s been helped by the Braves’ new analytics-intensive approach under general manager Alex Anthopoulos and a staff of statistical-data experts the team now employs.
“It’s important to get all kind of information on the other team,” Teheran said. “It makes it easy when you get to the mound, you see you just need to execute what we talk about and all the information that we have. Yeah, it’s been better.”
Asked about his overall improvement, he said, “My (physical) preparation has been the same. Obviously a lot more experience, I’m getting better at it. Before the game we talk with Flow and Zuke (veteran catchers Tyler Flowers and Kurt Suzuki). That makes it easier when we get out there.”
Flowers was behind the plate Wednesday and said Teheran’s keys were being able to put the ball where he wanted it and mixing his pitches.
“Command, getting ahead of guys,” Flowers said. “That gives you more opportunity to throw off-speed for strikes in fastball counts, those kinds of things. Then you put a lot of things into hitters’ heads to try and cover.”
As far as Teheran’s reduced velocity, that’s been offset by less reliance on the four-seam (straight) fastball.
“His two-seam, he’s been able to really hone it in,” Flowers said. “It was a decent pitch for him before, but now he’s has even better command with it. It’s another element – slider, four-seam, two-seam, everything’s kind of moving off of a lane there for him. That does help his velocity play up even more. But his ability to throw off-speed any time for strikes or for chase helps that fastball play up even more.”
Teheran pitched at least six innings and gave up two runs or fewer five times in those six starts, the only exception an April 27 game at Philadelphia when he gave up three runs in three innings before exiting with soreness in the trapezius muscle behind his pitching shoulder.
In Teheran’s past five starts other than that game, he has an 0.84 ERA with only three runs and one homer in 32 innings.
He gave Braves fans a bit of a scare with the early exit at Philly, but didn’t miss and start and bounced back with two convincing performances, the first times he’s pitched at least six scoreless innings in consecutive starts since June 2016 when he did it just before pitching in the All-Star game.
The Colombian who used to fire mid- to upper-90s fastballs early in his career operates in the 86-92 mph range with the four-seamer these days. He’s learned to pitch effectively using better location of his fastball and a mix of pitches including his sinker (two-seamer) and off-speed pitches.
Home-plate umpire Adam Hamari had a high strike zone Wednesday and Teheran exploited it, getting called strikes and plenty of swings-and-misses up in the zone.
“Yeah, I like to throw high (strikes),” Teheran said. “This year I feel it’s better and I’m using more of my fastball and throw the breaking ball whenever I need it. That’s been the difference, but I’m just trying to go out here and do the same thing every time.”
He’s enjoying his best stretch of pitching since his first half of his last All-Star season in 2016, but as far as enjoying the overall experience of pitching for the Braves, Teheran said it’s the best it’s been since his first full season in 2013 (he had brief stints in the big leagues in 2011 and 2012).
The first-place Braves have been one of baseball’s surprising teams, with a 21-14 record. They have a seven-game road winning streak and their pitchers set a modern-era (since 1900) franchise record with 34 consecutive scoreless innings in road games before the Rays got two runs in the eighth inning Wednesday.
“Right now it feels like we’re consistent,” Teheran said of the starting rotation. “Newk (Sean Newcomb) did his job yesterday and the same thing his last outing. It’s kind of fun whenever you get the ball and you know the guys behind you and in front of you, they’re doing the job. You feel like it’s your day and you want to do your part….
“It’s fun to know, especially as a pitcher, to know the team is the best it’s been in a long time. We’re having fun here and you can see the difference, especially me, being on the team the last six years. The last time I felt like this was in ’13 in my rookie year and it was fun. I feel that right now we’re playing the same way.”
