Braves set road scoreless-innings record
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ST. PETERSBURG -- While the offense has understandably garnered much of the attention, the Braves' pitching staff can now lay claim to doing something no other staff had done in franchise history.
The Braves set a modern-era franchise record when Julio Teheran extended the pitching staff's consecutive road scoreless innings streak to 31 with the impressive escape he made during the fourth frame of Wednesday night's 5-2 win against the Rays at Tropicana Field. Teheran pitched two more innings and reliever Sam Freeman tossed a scoreless seventh before the streak ended at 34 innings when Tampa Bay's Wilson Ramos knocked a two-run single against A.J. Minter in the eighth.
"It's fun as a pitching staff to know the team has been the best it's been in a long time," Teheran said. "I've been on the team for the last six years. The last time I felt like this was in 2013, my rookie year. It was fun. I feel like right now we're playing the same way."
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Matt Duffy's double gave the Rays runners at second and third with no outs in the fourth. But just when it looked like a new record might not be set, Teheran responded by recording a pair of strikeouts and inducing Joey Wendle's inning-ending groundout.
This was just the latest encouraging effort from Teheran, who scattered four hits over six scoreless innings. He has completed at least six innings without allowing a run in three of his past four starts. His teammate, Sean Newcomb, the Giants' Johnny Cueto and the Rockies' Jon Gray are the only other National League pitchers who have totaled three such starts this year.
"Julio just picked up where he left off the other day," Braves manager Brian Snitker said. "It was just a really good, strong effort."
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The Braves began their record-setting streak on May 2, when the pitching staff completed the first of two consecutive shutouts against the Mets. Tuesday night's 1-0 win over the Rays gave the Braves three consecutive road shutouts, marking the first time a Braves staff had accomplished this since 1948. The last MLB team to fashion three consecutive road shutouts was the Dodgers (April 4-6, 2016).
"Everybody is doing their job pretty much day in and day out," Braves catcher Tyler Flowers said. "That gives us a good chance to win."