2. Charlie Morton was brilliant most of the way, giving the Atlanta Braves a fighting chance.
The right-hander’s fastball was perhaps the most electric it has been all season.
A rested Morton was regularly sitting at 97 mph on the fastball, even touching 98 a few times.
Coupled with Charlie’s trademark “Uncle Charlie” curveball, he had a 2-pitch rhythm that had the Milwaukee hitters looking silly over the first half of the game.
Morton dazzled the Brewers’ lineup to the tune of nine strikeouts over the game’s first five innings, allowing just two baserunners – on soft singles – over that stretch.
It wasn’t until the bottom of the 6th that Morton began to show the first sign of cracking, issuing a leadoff walk that – while inconsequential in the 6th – would prove to be an ominous sign of a loss of command in the 7th.
The game-changing bottom of the 7th started with Morton plunking a batter, then serving up the decisive bomb to Tellez.
The final line for Charlie Morton reads 6 innings pitched, 2 earned runs, 1 walk, and 9 strikeouts.
And – unfortunately – an extremely costly hit-batsman, followed by a home run.
However, you can’t win with 0 – which is the run support Charlie had received up until that point in the momentum-swinging 7th.
Charlie Morton’s day must at least give Atlanta Braves fans some confidence that he’s still got the “stuff” to be a real weapon in October.
Make no mistake, he looked good – real good – for the Braves on the mound in a postseason game, at least until things spiraled fairly quickly.