Teheran, Freeman, and a lost chance vs. Reds 

CINCINNATI -- Julio Teheran relocated the weapon that may help him limit his struggles against left-handed hitters. But he didn’t have an answer for right-handed slugger Eugenio Suarez, who teamed with Luis Castillo to doom the Braves in Thursday night’s 4-2 loss to the Reds at Great American Ball Park.

Suarez tallied a third-inning RBI single and added a fifth-inning, two-run double. These two-out hits provided the necessary support for Castillo, who owned a Major League-best 1.23 ERA after blanking the Braves over six innings.

The Braves squandered a bases-loaded, no-out threat just before rain halted play in the middle of the seventh inning for two hours and 42 minutes. Play resumed at approximately 11:30 p.m. ET.

Here are three takeaways from the series-ending loss that concluded a 3-3 road trip highlighted by the five-run ninth inning the Braves produced to beat the Indians in Game 2 of Saturday’s doubleheader.

Reverse results

With the Reds placing five left-handed hitters in their lineup, the matchup did not seem optimal for Teheran, who had allowed left-handed hitters to produce a .327/.431/.418 slash line against him this year. Right-handed hitters had slashed .213/.269/.489 against him.

But Teheran bucked this trend as he regained success with the two-seam fastball, a pitch he had started to diminish from his arsenal over the past two years. The Reds left-handed hitters went 1-for-12 with six strikeouts against him. Five of those strikeouts were of the looking variety and four of those called third strikes were recorded with the two-seamer.

“He locked them up pretty good early in the game,” Braves catcher Brian McCann said. “Then when they started cheating in, that changeup played high after that. I thought he threw the ball extremely well.”

Suarez’s two-run double served as the decisive blow, but Teheran’s most glaring mistakes occurred in the third inning. He had struck out five of the first seven batters before throwing a 2-2 cookie to Castillo, a career .082 hitter who laced a single to center and then scored when Suarez surprised Teheran by swinging at a 3-0 fastball.

Teheran exited this outing intent on getting back to using his two-seamer more frequently. It had accounted for just 4.2 percent of the pitches he’d thrown to lefties entering this outing. He limited left-handers to a .167 (10-for-60) batting average with this pitch last year.

“When I try to throw it like my four-seamer, that’s when it moves better,” Teheran said. “When I try to make it move, that’s when it comes back to the middle of the plate.”

Extending dominance

Freddie Freeman made things interesting with the two-run homer he hit against Zach Duke in the eighth inning. It was Freeman’s third homer of the season and second against a left-hander. He is 6-for-8 with a double and three homers against the Reds reliever.

Freeman has not shown tremendous power as he has slashed .308/.438/.415 against right-handed pitchers this year. But he has fared much better while slashing .370/.452/.704 in 31 plate appearances against left-handers.

Squandered opportunities

Starting with Dansby Swanson’s second-inning double and extending through the third of the three groundouts Castillo induced in the fourth, the Braves produced a 95-plus mph exit velocity with six of the eight balls put in play. Josh Donaldson’s sharp grounder resulted in a double play that was turned just before Freeman got thrown out attempting to stretch a single into a double in the third.

But the more frustrating development occurred after Ronald Acuna Jr., McCann and Johan Camargo opened the seventh with three straight singles to chase Castillo. David Hernandez killed the bases-loaded no-out threat with three consecutive strikeouts of Swanson, Ender Inciarte and pinch-hitter Ozzie Albies, who was given a chance to rest by being out of the lineup for the first time this year.

Some of Swanson’s success this year can be attributed to him reducing his chase rate from 30.7 percent last year to 17.8 percent entering Thursday. But the Braves’ shortstop was unable to lay off Hernandez’ 1-2 outside fastball.

“[Hernandez’s] stuff was electric tonight,” McCann said. “I was on second base for those pitches. That four-seamer has good carry on it. He was throwing it at the top of the zone and didn’t miss. He made his pitches when he had to.”