LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Julio Teheran cruised through one of his final tune-ups for the regular season and Dan Straily enhanced his bid for a spot in Houston's bullpen before rain ended Friday's game at ESPN's Wide World of Sports in the seventh inning with the Braves and Astros tied at 1.
Teheran scattered four hits over six scoreless innings, and in the process, he took another encouraging step toward what will be his third consecutive Opening Day start. The Braves' ace surrendered a pair of doubles to Danny Worth and another to Matt Duffy, who was picked off second base to end the top of the second inning.
Teheran has allowed five earned runs over 17 1/3 innings. He will make one more start before taking the mound when the Braves open the regular season against the Nationals on April 4 at Turner Field.
The Astros started Straily to allow him to audition for a long-relief role and then watched him limit the Braves to one walk over four hitless and scoreless innings. Houston closer Ken Giles worked a perfect fifth inning before allowing Gordon Beckham to end the combined no-hit bid with a bloop opposite-field double. Erick Aybar's two-out triple off Tony Sipp scored Beckham with the game's first run.
Jason Grilli took the mound for the Braves in the seventh inning and promptly issued a leadoff walk to Colby Rasmus, who was replaced by pinch-runner Tony Kemp. After Kemp stole second, he crossed the plate on Jason Castro's game-tying single to left field.
Grilli was making his third appearance of the Grapefruit League season. The 39-year-old right-hander, who is attempting to return from the ruptured left Achilles tendon he suffered on July 11, has allowed three hits and three runs over three innings.
Up next for the Astros: Houston will have split squads this weekend, with one group in Mexico City for two Mexico City Series exhibitions with the San Diego Padres and the other remaining in Florida. Both will be the home teams Saturday, with Scott Feldman scheduled to start versus the Miami Marlins at 5:05 p.m. CT in Kissimmee, Fla., and Chris Devinski slated to face the Padres at 8 p.m. in Estadio de Beisbol. Houston's game vs. San Diego will be available via a free stream on Astros.com, while fans can listen to the other game via Gameday Audio.
Up next for the Braves:Freddie Freeman is expected to be in the lineup when the Braves host Jacob deGrom and the Mets on Saturday in a 1:05 p.m. ET game that will air on MLB.TV. While Freeman and some of Atlanta's other regulars will get a look at deGrom, Bud Norris will attempt to bounce back from his past two outings, which were both against the Tigers.