Teheran solid against Mets

NEW YORK — Julio Teheran hasn’t lost to the Mets in nearly two years, and New York manager Terry Collins wasn’t shocked by his team’s reaction when Atlanta tagged Robert Gsellman for five runs in the first inning.

“I think the air came out of the balloon pretty fast,” Collins said.

Teheran stifled the Mets into the seventh inning, Gsellman staggered through another tough first and the Braves handed New York its fifth straight loss, 8-2 on Wednesday night. Atlanta ended a six-game skid behind 6 1/3 innings of tworun ball from Teheran (21). The right-hander allowed four hits, four Braves 8, Mets 2

walks and a pair of sacrifice flies while striking out four. He is 4-0 with a 0.91 ERA in his last seven starts against New York dating to June 21, 2015.

“Well now that I’ve seen the results, I love pitching here,” Teheran said.

The ailing Mets got Yoenis Cespedes and Travis d’Arnaud back in the lineup but still dropped their fifth straight and ninth in 10 games. New York had five hits and is averaging 2.8 runs over its last 10 games.

“I thought we were way too good of an offensive club to struggle this bad,” said Collins, whose team is 8-12.

Gsellman (0-2) allowed his first seven batters to reach in an exasperating first inning, including one on his own throwing error. The 23-year-old rookie gave up six runs, 10 hits and three walks over fourplus innings. His ERA climbed to 6.23 one start after he pitched effectively into the eighth inning against Philadelphia.

Gsellman’s fastball velocity was down a couple of ticks, and he struggled with his command. The right-hander said he felt tight and off mechanically.

“Cold, little tight, it’s all right,” he said. “It’ll be back up next start.”

“Hopefully there’s nothing wrong physically,” Collins said. “But we’ve seen better stuff. Maybe just write this one off to a bad night.”