Teheran aims to overcome West blues

SAN FRANCISCO — When Julio Teheran faces the Los Angeles Angels in today’s series opener in Anaheim, it will be the 26th team he has faced in his major league career and 24th stadium. The Braves veteran will try to make sure his performance mirrors his previous road starts this season rather than many of his other starts against teams in the West.

Teheran is 1-4 with a majors-worst 8.40 ERA and .951 opponents’ OPS in six home starts this season, compared to 2-0 with a stingy 0.71 ERA and .514 opponents’ OPS in four road starts, the second-lowest road ERA among major league qualifiers. It’s one of the most severe homeroad splits you are ever likely to see more than one-fourth of the way through a season.

“Obviously that’s the way I want to keep pitching on the road,” Teheran said, “but at home, still need to make a couple of adjustments like I did last outing. We’re getting there, making adjustments and working every day to get better.”

Teheran is coming off just his second good home start of the season — he pitched six innings Wednesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates at SunTrust and allowed four hits and three runs, all of which were unearned. He had given up eight hits, nine runs and two homers in three innings six days earlier in a home loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

He’s allowed no earned runs in three of his four road starts, all in the Eastern time zone. On Monday, Teheran toes the mound again in the region of the country where he frequently has pitched like something far from a two-time All-Star. Earlier in his career, Teheran had several of his worst starts in the West and complained of not being able to grip the baseball properly in the chillier, often dryer conditions than he’s used to in the eastern half of the country.

In 16 career road starts against National League West teams, Teheran is 4-7 with a 4.85 ERA and 18 homers allowed in 94⅔ innings. And in his only interleague start on the West Coast, an August 2014 game at Seattle in his second full season, gave up nine hits, six runs and two homers in six innings. Teheran made his first All-Star team that year and had a 2.72 ERA in his other 32 starts.

Today, Teheran will make his first start against the other team from metropolitan Los Angeles — the Angels play in Anaheim, in Orange County south of Los Angeles proper — and he’ll aim for far better results than he’s had pitching on the road against the Dodgers.

Teheran is 0-3 with a 6.50 ERA in three starts at Dodger Stadium, where he’s given up five homers in 18 innings. The Angels are led by Mike Trout, widely viewed as the best player in the majors and hitting .342 with 16 homers and a 1.215 OPS.

As a team, the Angels were tied with the Pirates for 26th in the majors in OPS (.695) before Sunday and tied for 21st in home runs with 51 — four more than the Braves had.

This will be the first time Teheran and the Braves have faced shortstop Andrelton Simmons since he was traded to the Angels in November 2015. Simmons, 27, is still playing extraordinary defense and is having his best offensive season, batting .283 with four homers, 20 RBIs and a .341 OBP in 51 games.