ATLANTA _ For an organization whose greatest successes were built around highest-level pitching, it was only appropriate that the last game at Turner Field was a pitcher's duel won by the Braves.
Julio Teheran matched a career-high with 12 strikeouts in seven scoreless innings, out-pitching Tigers ace Justin Verlander in a 1-0 win that was the 12th in the last 14 games of the season for a surging, upbeat Braves team that finished the season as if it wished it could play another 50 games.
After rookie shortstop Dansby Swanson made a terrific play to start a line-out 6-4 double play to end the eighth inning, closer Jim Johnson worked around a one-out single in the ninth and struck out Justin Upton to end the game before a foam tomahawk-chopping, chanting sellout crowd of 51,220.
After an 18-46 start that had them on pace to lose 116 games, the Braves turned things around under interim manager Brian Snitker and went 50-47 over their final 97 games including 20 wins in the final 30.
Teheran (7-10) came in with just one home win thanks mainly to a lack of run support for most of the season, but on Sunday he pitched so well, he didn't need much help.
The Braves scratched out a run in the first inning against Verlander (16-9) on a Freddie Freeman sacrifice fly after consecutive singles from Ender Inciarte and Adonis Garcia started the inning.
That was the only run of the game, which resembled many of those games pitched by the Braves' Big Three during the franchise's golden decade in the 1990s. That trio of Hall of Fame pitchers, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, were part of the Braves' All-Turner Field team honored during an emotional ceremony before the game, and all three threw out ceremonial first pitches simultaneously.
It was as if Teheran drew inspiration from that display, from the thunderous ovations accorded the Big Three, Chipper Jones and other Braves greats before the final game in the 20-year baseball life of Turner Field. Because when he took the mound, he pitched as if he making a case for himself on that team.
Teheran struck out the side in the first inning against a Tigers team still alive in the American League wild-card race, fanning future Hall-of-Fame slugger Miguel Cabrera to end the inning. He gave up a single and walk in the second inning, but also had two strikeouts that inning and came away unscathed.
With the loss, the Tigers were officially eliminated from the playoff race.
He faced only two batters over the minimum in his final five innings, giving up two-out singles in the fifth and sixth innings. When Teheran hit a two-out infield single in the fifth inning, he had as many hits as he had allowed to that point.
This from a guy who had been 1-6 with 3.84 ERA in 17 home starts before Sunday, compared to 5-4 with 2.69 ERA in 15 road starts. And who had been 0-1 with a 10.61 ERA in past two home starts.
Not Sunday. On Sunday, Teheran pitched like the All-Star that he was this season. In fact, on this special day, the last day in the history of the ballpark on the edge of downtown Atlanta, Teheran pitched like one of the greats who preceded him in a Braves uniform in the early years of the ballpark.
