ATLANTA _ No Braves player was more excited last week about getting back to Atlanta and opening the new ballpark than center fielder Ender Inciarte. He said after his two-homer game in a win at Miami on Wednesday that hoped that would be a momentum-changer for the Braves before Friday's home opener at SunTrust Park, which he said "is beautiful and hopefully it's going to be a really positive ballpark for us."
Inciarte hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning to help assure the home opener was a positive experience for the Braves and a standing-room only crowd of 41,149, who watched the home team pick up a 5-2 win against the San Diego Padres in the first of a four-game series and seven-game homestand.
Inciarte cornered the market on firsts at the new ballpark, getting the first hit and scoring the first run after catching a fly ball for the first out. He helped Julio Teheran get the first win at SunTrust Park on a night when the Braves' No. 1 starter labored for much of his six innings but made plenty of big pitches when he needed them most. Teheran (1-0) was charged with five hits, two runs and four walks with five strikeouts, and also had the game-winning RBI.
Inciarte's three homers in the past two games matches his total from his entire first season with the Braves in 2016, when the Gold Glove winner hit .291 with a .351 OBP and three homers in 578 plate appearances.
After the first four batters in the bottom of the first inning the Braves already had their first hit, their first two runs and first two extra-base hits at their new ballpark, including Nick Markakis' two-run double that provided a 2-0 lead for Teheran. Freddie Freeman's doubled was the first extra-base hit.
This was unusual ground for Teheran, the hard-luck pitcher who had but seven wins to go with a 3.21 ERA in an All-Star season in 2016 and entered Friday with no decisions and two team losses in two starts this season despite allowing no earned runs.
Perhaps he was so surprised to have a lead before his second inning, he forgot how to act. Teheran gave the lead back right away.
He walked the first batter in the second inning, then induced a double-play grounder before hitting No. 7 hitter Erick Aybar with a pitch. Three consecutive singles followed including run-scoring hits by pitcher Jhoulys Chacin and Manuel Margot, who was thrown out trying to steal second base to end the inning.
Teheran also gave up a leadoff walk and single to start the third inning, but worked out of that trouble with a double-play grounder and a strikeout to start a solid run of pitching for the Braves' four-time opening-day starter. He got nine outs in a span of nine batters before hitting Yangervis Solarte with a pitch to start the sixth inning, then walking Ryan Schimpf.
With his pitch count already near 100, Teheran again worked out of a tight spot by getting the next three batters on a line-out, a fly-out and a strikeout of Austin Hedges, after which Teheran gave a little pump of the arm to show his excitement before walking off the field. He threw 66 strikes in 105 pitches.
Chacin had a 5.40 ERA and one win in five starts for the Braves in 2016 before he was traded to the Angels on May 11. To understand how severe the Padres' current rebuilding project is, consider that Chacin was their Opening Day starter this season.
He got rocked for a career-high nine runs in 32/3 innings in an opening loss at Dodger Stadium, then had a stunning bounce-back game when he out-pitched Giants ace Madison Bumgarner in Chacin's second start, working 62/3 scoreless innings and allowing just three hits.
It looked like Chacin might be in for a night similar to his Opening Day debacle on Friday when he gave up two runs on three hits including two doubles before recording his second out in the game.
Inciarte's led off with an infield hit and Freeman had a one-out double. With runners at second and third, Markakis drove in both with a double to the right-field warning track for a 2-0 lead.
Chacin settled down after that and got on a roll, recording 10 outs in the next 11 batters, including double-play grounders by Markakis after a Freeman infield hit in the third inning and Adonis Garcia after a Brandon Phillips leadoff single in the fourth inning. The Braves have grounded into 13 double plays in nine games, second-most in the National League.
After Garcia's double-play grounder, Flowers got the Braves going again with a two-out single and Jace Peterson walked to bring up Teheran, whose ground-ball single was fielded behind second base by Solarte, who bounced a throw to first base.
Teheran, hustling on the would-be close play, was credited with an RBI single, though it seemed questionable whether Flowers would've scored from second base on an infield hit if the throw hadn't bounced off first baseman Wil Myers' glove.
It went in the books as an RBI single for Teheran, giving himself and the Braves a 3-2 lead.
