Teheran will start opening day April 3

There were no surprises when the Braves announced their season-opening starting rotation Sunday, beginning with Julio Teheran in his fourth consecutive opening day start April 3 against the Mets.

He’ll be followed by Bartolo Colon, Jaime Garcia and R.A. Dickey, with Mike Foltynewicz in the fifth spot. Four of the five were set before spring training began and Foltynewicz was a heavy favorite for No. 5 slot.

“It’s a great honor that I feel one more time, for the fourth time,” said Teheran, who is 1-1 with a 2.50 ERA in opening-day starts, with five earned runs allowed in 18 innings. “All I’m thinking is for the season, we’ve got a pretty good team. It’s kind of exciting to be the No. 1, but I’m focusing on overall (team).”

Teheran will be the third Braves pitcher to start four consecutive season openers, joining Greg Maddux (19931996) and Rick Mahler (19851988). The only two National League pitchers with longer active opening-day start streaks are the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw, who has started six in a row, and the Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright, who has started four.

After Teheran starts the opener at Citi Field, there’s a day off (in case of rain) before Colon starts Game 2 against his former Mets team April 5. Left-hander Garcia starts the April 6 series finale in New York, knuckleballer Dickey makes his Braves debut with a series-opening start April 7 at Pittsburgh and Foltynewicz starts April 6 against the Pirates.

The Braves have two off days (April 4, April 10) in the first eight days of the season, but are using all five starters rather than skip someone’s turn. There are reasons: They have the majors’ oldest starters in Colon (43) and Dickey (42), plus Garcia has battled injuries throughout his career and pitched as many as 130 innings only once in the past five seasons.