Daniel Shirey-USA Today Sports
A week helped Mike Minor find success against the Miami Marlins, and now Julio Teheran hopes to do the same.
Teheran takes the hill on Tuesday night in the second game between the Atlanta Braves and Marlins a week after he failed to lead the Braves to a victory. Once again, Teheran (6-4, 3.23) will go up against counterpart Henderson Alvarez (0-0, 5.40) but hopes to figure into a winning decision this time around.
The 22-year-old didn’t pitch poorly on July 4 in the eventual 4-3 loss, but lacked command and efficiency in throwing 104 pitches in five innings while allowing three earned runs. It was the first time since an April 25 start that Teheran failed to pitch at least six innings.
Teheran will look to get back to how he pitched in June in which he was 3-2 with a 1.95 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and 10.30 K/9 ratio. Finding command of his off-speed pitches will improve his efficiency against the Marlins. He was unable to get enough swings and misses with his breaking pitches while Marlin hitters fouled off pitches and ran up his pitch count.
One hitter that Teheran shut down last time and will need to do the same on Tuesday night is slugger Giancarlo Stanton. He managed to get Stanton to strikeout and ground out in three at-bats in his last start. Stanton is hitting .280 with six home runs in Marlin wins, while just .220 with two home runs in losses. Keeping him in check will be key for Teheran in putting together a quality start.
Limiting Stanton’s damage and regaining command of his breaking pitches will go a long way in Teheran getting a little revenge against the Marlins.
