Collin McHugh made his spring debut, Braves fall to Rays 5-1

Charlie Morton was mostly good in his start on Wednesday with the notable exception of seemingly being unable to keep Manuel Margot in check. A three-run homer early put the Braves in a hole they couldn't climb out of as the Atlanta Braves lost 5-1.

Charlie Morton's day did not get off to a great start. He walked the first batter he faced and then hit the second one. After getting a pair of outs, Manuel Margot promptly took a fastball over the inner third of the plate and hit a three run bomb to put the Braves in an early hole. Margot would continue to give Charlie fits as he had a double in the fourth inning and later scored on a RBI single off the bat of old friend Charlie Culberson.

All in all, it wasn't a terrible outing for Morton other than the times he faced Margot. Over 4.1 innings of work, he gave up those four runs on three hits and a walk (plus the HBP) while striking out seven batters. Not an ideal outing to be sure, but there are some positives to take away from it.

You will notice the lack of offensive highlights up until now in all likelihood and that is because there weren't really any. Through seven innings, the Braves were held to just four hits (all singles). This wasn't overly surprising given that this was a "give the everyday guys a day off" lineup, but still didn't make the most fun to watch.

It was nice to see Collin McHugh make his spring training debut at the very least. McHugh has been getting his work in on the backfields and it looks like that has gone well as he pitched two scoreless innings in this game. AJ Minter had a fine outing in relief as well. He had a bit of rough luck as the single he gave up turned into a run thanks to a throwing error on a stolen base attempt giving the Rays a runner at third that would come in on a sac fly.

The Braves did finally get on the board at least in the top of the ninth. Nacho Alvarez led the inning off with a double and after a balk moved him over to third, Cade Bunnell came through with an infield RBI single to get the Braves a run.