A couple of highly touted pitching prospects made their season debuts for the minor league Braves in Friday's action, including the top-ranked pitching prospect in baseball.
AAA: Durham - 5, Gwinnett - 3 (12 Innings)
Julio Teheran received his first start of the season and first career start at AAA. The move to start him in the International League was met with some criticism, but Teheran quieted the doubters with a solid 5.2 innings against Durham, allowing one run on two hits while walking two and striking out three.
Both of Teheran's walks came in the first inning but neither led to trouble. He pitched a perfect second and allowed one single in the third. He followed with a perfect fourth, and after hitting the leadoff batter in the fifth, he induced a double play for a scoreless inning. Teheran's lone run came in the sixth when he allowed a leadoff single to Desmond Jennings, who stole second, reached third on a wild pitch and scored on a sac fly.
Teheran threw 86 pitches and 56 for strikes, inducing six groundouts to five flyouts. It was a great AAA debut for the No. 1 pitching prospect in baseball.
Scott Proctor followed with three hits, one walk and two runs allowed in 1.1 innings. Stephen Marek followed with two scoreless innings on one hit and one strikeout.
AA: Jackson - 3, Mississippi 2 (10 Innings)
As Teheran mowed down AAA batters in Gwinnett, another top pitching prospect for the Braves took the hill in Mississippi. Brett Oberholtzer made his AA debut in dominating fashion, allowing one run on three hits while walking none and striking out five. The lone run came in the third when Jake Shaffer led off with a double, and Kyle Seager eventually drove him in on a single.
After a two-hit, two-RBI day in the season opener Thursday, Tyler Pastornicky went 3-4 with one double in Friday's game. Hot hitting from the shortstop will only shorten his time in AA.
A+ Lynchburg: Postponed
A: Hagerstown - 2, Rome - 0
Caleb Brewer had a career night in his season debut for Rome, pitching 5.2 no-hit innings. He did walk four with two strikeouts, however, limiting his outing to less than six full innings. Brewer dealt with two errors - one on his own - and plenty of baserunners all night, but he managed to hold Hagerstown hitless. It has to be the ugliest no-hitter ever pitched, even for 5.2 innings.
Even better than Brewer's no-hitter was three singles for Edward Salcedo. The big third baseman needed a break-through game like this to build some confidence coming into 2011.