Along with accounting for one of the three home runs Julio Teheran surrendered to players who hadn’t previously homered this season, Marcus Stroman easily handled a Freddie Freeman-less Braves lineup while helping the Blue Jays cruise to Thursday night’s 9-0 win over the Braves at SunTrust Park.

After losing each of the first three games of this home-and-home Interleague series, the Blue Jays left no doubt in this finale as they tallied three runs in three of the first four innings. Stroman completed 5 2/3 scoreless innings and contributed to the early offensive onslaught as he drilled his first career home run in the fourth inning. The opposite-field shot traveled a projected 370 feet with a 99-mph exit velocity, per Statcast™.
“I think it was a good win for us,” Stroman said. “I think it was a good momentum win for us, especially heading into Baltimore over the weekend. Baltimore is always going to swing it and be competitive and it’s the AL East. I think this is a great game to get everybody hot and feeling the right way and take this momentum into Baltimore.”
Recently promoted Darrell Ceciliani highlighted his three-RBI night with a two-run home run in the third inning that traveled a projected 424 feet into the right-field seats. Ceciliani injured his left shoulder on the swing and exited the game after homering off Teheran, who surrendered a career-high nine earned runs and eight hits over three-plus innings.
Darrell Ceciliani drives a liner over the right-center-field wall for a two-run home run, but appears to injure himself on the swing
Playing their first game without Freeman, who fractured his left wrist on Wednesday and will be out for 10 weeks, the Braves never recovered from the early onslaught endured by Teheran, who exited shortly after allowing backup catcher Luke Maile and Stroman to open the fourth inning with back-to-back home runs. The home runs surrendered to Maile and Ceciliani came against changeups.
Teheran has allowed opponents to hit .337 and compile a .425 on-base percentage as he’s produced a 10.50 ERA in five home starts (24 innings). Opponents have hit .195 and compiled a .273 OBP as the Braves’ hurler has posted a 0.71 ERA in four road starts (25 1/3 innings).
“I don’t feel something [different] when I’m pitching, but we’re seeing the results and it’s not what I want, especially compared to what I’ve done on the road,” Teheran said. “We’re still looking at what’s going on and hopefully it gets better, because it’s our stadium and that’s where I want to feel more comfortable.”
After Jose Bautista’s bat flip on a home run in a five-run game led the benches to clear on Wednesday night, Teheran attempted to send a message when he hit Bautista in the left thigh with a 95.6-mph heater in the first inning. The Blue Jays’ outfielder simply took first base and then watched his teammates record three straight hits. Ceciliani and Chris Coghlan highlighted the three-run first inning with consecutive doubles.
“The one thing about Jose — I’ve seen it and I’ve never seen anybody like it — when he gets drilled or they throw behind him or something, he always comes back to burn somebody,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Tyler Flowers opened the bottom of the second with an opposite-field double that skipped over the first-base bag. But instead of cutting into their three-run deficit, the Braves left Flowers stranded at third base. Jace Peterson and Rio Ruiz sandwiched groundouts around a Dansby Swanson strikeout.
“It was going to be tough to get [Stroman] tonight after we got down,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It didn’t look like he was going anywhere anytime soon. It was just rough.”
R.A. Dickey will take the mound when Atlanta welcomes first-place Washington to SunTrust Park on Friday for the opener of a three-game series at 6:35 p.m. CT. Dickey has allowed seven home runs in 25 innings at home and two homers in 17 2/3 innings on the road.

The Nashville Sounds red-hot offense flipped it into high gear Thursday night with a 13-3 win over the Fresno Grizzlies at Chukchansi Park.

The runs came in waves for the top home run hitting team in Minor League Baseball. Matt Chapman hit a solo homer, and Franklin Barreto clubbed a three-run blast as part of a four-run top of the third inning.

It continued in the fourth when Joey Wendle started the inning with a triple down the right field line. Wendle’s knock would be one of four extra-base hits in the frame. Matt McBride doubled, Barreto drove in two more runs with another double, and Matt Olson finished the scoring with the third double of the inning to give Nashville (18-19) a 9-1 lead.

The outburst was more than enough for starter Daniel Mengden who was making his third MLB rehab start. The right-hander allowed a solo homer to Max Stassi in the third, but that was it. He worked six innings and allowed one run on four hits. Mengden did not issue any walks and recorded seven strikeouts in the win.

While Mengden was shutting down the Grizzlies, the Sounds’ offense kept churning. Ryan LaMarre started the sixth with an infield single. After the next two batters were retired, the Sounds collected three consecutive hits to drive up the score to 12-1. Olson singled, Renato Nuñez drove in a pair with a double, and Wendle knocked in Nuñez with a double of his own.

Nashville finished the game with nine extra-base hits, including three home runs to give the team 51 on the season. 33 of the home runs have come in the month of May – the most in all of baseball.

Nuñez put an exclamation point on the victory with a booming home run out of Chukchansi Park to start the eighth inning. It was his team-leading 10th homer of the season and he was one of eight Sounds hitters to record a multi-hit game.

Barreto went 3-for-6 and matched a career-high with 5 RBI. Chapman went 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored, and LaMarre scored three times.

John Axford threw a scoreless seventh inning for Nashville as his MLB rehab assignment continued. It took the veteran right-hander five pitches to record three outs.

The Sounds begin a four-game series with the Sacramento River Cats Friday night. Right-hander Paul Blackburn (1-4, 4.00) starts for Nashville against left-hander Michael Roth (2-3, 4.54) for Sacramento. First pitch is scheduled for 9:05 p.m. CST.