Braves’ Julio Teheran loses no-hitter in the 8th

The young right-hander goose-egged the Bucs in the hit column through seven, but couldn’t get Brandon Inge with two down in the eighth.

by Nate A

Jun 5, 2013, 6:26 PM UTC

Kevin C. Cox

Atlanta Braves right-hander Julio Teheran held the Pittsburgh Pirates hitless through 7⅔ innings before surrendering a single to Brandon Inge on his 102nd pitch of the day. If the 22-year-old had hung on for the final two frames, he would have become the first player to throw a no-hitter this season and the first Braves pitcher to do so since Kent Mercker blanked the Dodgers in April 1994.

More Braves: It's Good to Walk A Lot

Teheran kept the Bucs’ offense off-balance all day, striking out at least one batter in each of his eight innings, finishing with 11 Ks total on the day. The young right-hander allowed four base-runners prior to Inge’s bloop single to left -- two free passes and two HBPs -- but was dominant otherwise.

There weren’t any game-saving defensive plays behind Teheran, but he did pick Starling Marte off first to end the sixth:

The Braves’ offense was also kept rather quiet for the first five frames, but exploded in the sixth with back-to-back jacks from Evan Gattis and Gerald Laird to give Atlanta a 3-0 lead. The Braves led 5-0 after seven.

A top prospect in the Braves’ system for the last four seasons, Teheran may finally be emerging as the quality starter Atlanta thought he’d be when they first called him up in 2011. The right--hander made brief appearances in the Braves’ rotation the last two years, but was never guaranteed a spot in the staff until this April.

His first three outings this season were pretty rough, but he’s really righted the ship over his last several starts. In the seven starts leading up to Wednesday’s game, Teheran posted a 2.49 ERA and a 5.33 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 47 innings, earning quality starts in six of the seven outings.