Braves stop six-game slide with 4-2 win
SAN DIEGO -- Julio Teheran held San Diego to two Wil Myers home runs in eight innings on Wednesday afternoon as the Atlanta Braves defeated the Padres 4-2 to snap a six-game losing streak and salvage a win in the three-game series between the last-place teams in the National League’s East and West divisions.
The loss marked the 19th time in 20 games this year that the Padres have lost the last game of a series. Atlanta also snapped a 12-game losing streak at Petco Park.
Myers' 11th and 12th homers of the season accounted for two of the five hits allowed by Teheran (2-6). He issued a walk and had eight strikeouts. A .053 hitter entering the game, Teheran was also 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Arodys Vizcaino, who blew the save and took the loss on Tuesday night in the Padres' 4-3 walk-off win, picked up his seventh save in nine chances.
The top two hitters in the Atlanta batting order each had three hits. Ender Inciarte fell a home run short of a natural cycle and scored two runs. Chase d'Arnaud was 3-for-5 with a double, two RBIs and a run.
Padres starter Drew Pomeranz (5-6) took the loss.
The left-hander entered the game with a major league-leading .163 opponents' batting average but gave up two runs and four hits in the first inning -- higher totals than for six of his first 11 starts.
Inciarte and d'Arnaud opened the game with back-to-back singles, placing Braves at the corners with no one out. Inciarte scored on a sacrifice fly by Freddie Freeman. Back-to-back, one-out singles by Jeff Francoeur and Nick Markakis brought d'Arnaud around.
The Braves made it 3-0 in the top of the fourth when shortstop Daniel Castro singled with one out, advanced to second on a wild pitch by Pomeranz and scored on Teheran's single.
Myers made it 3-1 in the bottom of the fourth when he homered on the first pitch in the inning to make it 3-1. The homer was the first hit off Teheran.
The Braves widened their lead to 4-1 in the top of the seventh against Brandon Maurer. Inciarte tripled with two outs and scored on a double by d'Arnaud. Maurer has allowed 12 runs and 12 hits in four innings in his last six outings.
Myers hit his second homer off Teheran in the bottom of the seventh to make it 4-2.
NOTES: The Braves traded INF-OF Kelly Johnson to the Mets for minor league RHP Akeel Morris, who will join Double-A Binghamton. Johnson, who was hitting .215 in 49 games, was also traded from the Braves to the Mets last July only to return to Atlanta as a free agent in January. ... The Braves placed RHP Williams Perez on the disabled list with a rotator cuff strain suffered Monday night in San Diego. ... RHP John Gant was recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett. He had been optioned to Gwinnett on Monday when RHP Casey Kelly was recalled. With the Braves flying home after Wednesday's game, Gant had never left San Diego. ... Padres SS Alexei Ramirez went 0-for-3 to have his 10-game hitting streak snapped.