MLB Game Preview - Atlanta at Pittsburgh

Sun Apr 9, 2017 1:35 PM EDT

PITTSBURGH -- Maybe this time the Atlanta Braves will come up with some run support for right-hander Julio Teheran.

Teheran pitched a gem in his first start this season, but he got nothing to show for it. He will try again Sunday as the Braves (1-4) try to avoid being swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park.

Monday against the New York Mets, Teheran gave up four hits and three walks with six strikeouts in six shutout innings. He threw a total of 96 pitches, matching Mets ace Noah Syndergaard in a scoreless pitchers' duel for those six inning, but the Braves couldn't produce offensively and the Mets got to Atlanta's bullpen for a 6-0 win.

"He just battled his butt off," Braves manager Brian Snitker said of Teheran, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "His stuff was good, moved the ball around, changed speeds, did what he does and kept the game right there."

Last year, Teheran got just 3.35 support runs per nine innings pitched, second-lowest among major league starters, one of the reasons he was 7-10 despite a 3.21 ERA.

The Braves have scored four runs in each of the first two games of the series against Pittsburgh, but that hasn't been enough. They have lost 5-4 and 6-4, and are 4-11 in their past 15 games at PNC Park.

"We started the season sloppy. There are things to clean up and we will," said right-hander R.A. Dickey, who took the loss Saturday.

"I think the motif here early in the year is that all of us are a little bit out of rhythm. We're pros. We've got professionals in here. We're going to turn the page. Early on, we need to be a little bit better."

A rainout Thursday afternoon in Boston prompted the Pirates to juggle their rotation for several days, including the final two games of the Atlanta series. Right-hander Chad Kuhl was supposed to start in his season debut that day at Fenway and was disappointed because he had a lot of family members who drove from his hometown in Delaware to watch him.

"We'll see them again next Thursday, so maybe I'll line up for that," Kuhl said Friday. In fact, Saturday, before Kuhl got the win against the Braves, Pittsburgh announced its probable starter for Thursday's makeup game in Boston, and Kuhl is penciled in.

Sunday, No. 1 starter Gerrit Cole will be the first Pirates pitcher to make a second start. He has been elevated to the role of staff ace at age 26, and it's a young staff with an average age of 26 years, seven months.

Cole is 3-0 with a 1.73 ERA in four career starts against Atlanta, pitching seven innings in three of those starts.

This season, though, he had a rocky season opener.

He was cruising along Monday in Boston before the Red Sox scored five runs against Cole in a two-out rally in the fifth inning en route to a 5-3 win.

"They just hit them where we weren't," Cole told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after he allowed five runs on seven hits, walking one and striking out two.