It appeared that former Braves ace Julio Teheran had turned around his season when he pitched seven shutout innings against the Mets on Sunday.
Appearances can be deceiving.
Teheran reverted to the form Saturday in Pittsburgh that has made this season a personal disappointment. He yielded six runs on nine hits in six innings to raise his ERA to 4.94. Several strong outings still have his record at 5-4.
The right-hander nearly didn't make it out of the first inning. He gave up five hits, including a Starling Marte single, Pedro Alvarez double and Francisco Cervelli single successively that plated four runs. By the time the dust had cleared, he had faced 10 batters in the inning and surrendered five runs.
Teheran settled down thereafter, allowing just one more run, but the brutal start put the Braves behind to stay. And it had Fredi Gonzalez quite unhappy.
"There's something there that we've got to fix," he told MLB.com. "We've got to take care of it collectively. Julio has a big voice in this. When we get home and he throws his side [session] on Tuesday, we've got to sit down and figure out what needs to be addressed."