Over the past month or so, Julio Teheran has been one of the Braves' best starting pitchers. He began the season by simply walking fewer hitters than we expected, but over the last 5 starts, Teheran has been missing more bats. His last start against the Padres didn't go so well, however, and it was going to be interesting to see how Teheran responded.
Teheran responded beautifully. Six shutout innings of baseball, 8 Ks, and 1 BB later, Teheran had shut down the Giants. Featuring a 93-95 mph fastball and a couple swing-and-miss breaking balls, Julio looked the part of the top prospect coming into form. It's interesting to watch a pitcher who was mostly fastball-change in the minors develop a couple breaking balls that he can miss bats with, and if he can continue throwing both the curveball and slider like this, he's going to be a very good pitcher.
And the Braves hitters added enough run support to back Teheran and win the series. Andrelton Simmons began the game with his first walk since he met Nala for the first time, and Freddie Freeman - of course - knocked him in to make the game 1-0. A couple innings later, B.J. Upton continued his recent string of good hitting by lining a ball just under the glove of left fielder Andres Torres to bring in Justin Upton. During the bottom of the sixth, one of the odder plays I've seen occurred as a Ramiro Pena single went past Torres' glove for a single and two-base error. Jordan Schafer followed with a squeeze bunt that plated Pena. It wasn't a lot of offense, but it was enough.
Luis Avilan, Jordan Walden, and Craig Kimbrel finished off the game and shut out the Giants.
Win Expectancy Chart