ATLANTA _ In his most perplexing season, Braves veteran Julio Teheran had alternated really good and really bad starts his past six times out. But Sunday, in the last game before the All-Star break, when his slumping team needed a solid performance from the veteran, one that might help them ease into the break in a better mood, he came through.
Teheran had one of those days that remind folks of how good he still can be, taking a two-hit shutout to the seventh inning of a 5-1 sweep-averting win over the Diamondbacks at SunTrust Park.
The Braves scored four runs in the third inning against All-Star Patrick Corbin and cruised to just their third win in 11 games and their fourth in the past 11 games at SunTrust, where they've been drawing their largest crowds in years but not playing lately like they did the first three months.
On Sunday they played like a team that had held first place in the National League East for all but two days from May 2 until this five-game homestand, when the Braves lost three of the first four to slip to second place, 1 { games behind Philadelphia before Sunday. The Braves won, the Phillies lost, and it's a half-game deficit entering the break.
Teheran (7-6) allowed a pair of hits and a walk in the seventh to finish with a line that was still quite impressive: 6 1/3 scoreless innings, four hits, three walks, six strikeouts.
Just as importantly, he maintained good stuff: crisp pitches, improved velocity, good location and a mix that kept the West-leading Diamondbacks off balance.
A snapshot of his performance: In the sixth, one of three innings in which Teheran retired the side in order, he struck out slugger Paul Goldschmidt on five pitches. He started him with three 90-91 mph fastballs, then got him to swing at a nasty slider for a 2-2 count before he finished him with a 93-mph fastball that Goldschmidt swung through.
The Braves gave him a big lead in the third and Teheran protected it this time.
In their last two games before the All-Star break, the Braves faced a pair of All-Star pitchers. They couldn't muster anything against Zach Greinke in Saturday's 3-0 loss, but they jumped on Corbin in a four-run third inning, scoring as many runs in that inning as they had scored in the left-hander's previous 38 2/3 career innings against the Braves.
Corbin entered Sunday with a 0.98 ERA in seven games (five starts) against the Braves, the lowest ERA against Atlanta for any starting pitcher with five or more starts. He fell out of the top five Sunday as it climbed to 1.69, leaving the unforgettable Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd (1.17) atop that list.
Dansby Swanson and Freddie Freeman each had RBI doubles in the inning and Ozzie Albies and Nick Markakis had RBI singles, with Albies hustling to reach third base on his infield single when third baseman Jake Lamb's throw to first base sailed high. Freeman doubled one out later.
Preston Tucker's pinch-hit home run in the seventh off one-time Braves prospect Randall Delgado was just the third in nine games for the Braves and pushed their lead to 5-0. It was Tucker's third career pinch-hit homer and first since 2015 when he was with the Astros. Tucker was recalled Friday from a long stint at Triple-A Gwinnett.
Dan Winkler gave up an eighth-inning homer to John Jay for Arizona's only run.
The only trouble Teheran encountered through six innings came in the third, when Daniel Descalso hit a leadoff double and Alex Avila walked to put two on with none out in a then-scoreless game.
Corbin followed by barely making contact with a ball that rolled to the left of the plate and was picked up quickly by Kurt Suzuki as it hit the chalk line of the batter's box. Suzuki fired to Johan Camargo for the force at third. Camargo had plenty of time to throw across the diamond to first base for the double play as Corbin thought the ball was foul and didn't immediately run hard.
That was the only time the Diamondbacks advanced a runner to second until the seventh inning, when Teheran gave up a leadoff single to A.J. Pollock on a grounder that got past Camargo. Teheran promptly picked off Pollock at first with a move that's been as good as any by major league right-handers for several years, but still catches plenty of runners seemingly unaware.
Lamb followed with a double and Ketel Marte walked before manager Brian Snitker strode to the mound and replaced Teheran, who threw only 79 pitches including 50 strikes. Jesse Biddle induced a ground-out from Descalso and struck out Avila to keep Teheran's line scoreless.
In his last two starts before the break, against the Blue jays and Diamondbacks, Teheran allowed just seven hits and one run in 13 innings, with six walks and 11 strikeouts. And both games were at SunTrust Park, the home field that has not been kind to Teheran for most of its first 1 { seasons.
