As second half arrives, Morton getting in postseason form

ATLANTA -- Charlie Morton has long been his own toughest critic. But as he discussed not being satisfied with the six scoreless innings he threw in an 8-1 win over the Angels on Friday night at Truist Park, the Braves hurler also provided a reminder of how far he has come since the season’s first two months.

“I mean, my outing was pretty sloppy,” Morton said.

Morton surrendered just two hits, but he issued three walks and watched his curveball hit two more batters on the foot. While he might currently deem this as sloppy, he may have celebrated an identical six-inning effort at any point when he was constructing a 5.67 ERA through his first 12 starts of the season.

“He was a little hard on himself after I took him out and was talking to him,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I thought he threw a lot better than what his assessment was. I thought it was OK, especially with the long layoff.”

The All-Star break didn’t adversely affect the Braves, who improved to 34-11 since the start of June and moved within 1 1/2 games of the first-place Mets in the National League East. The defending World Series champs claimed this latest victory with a seven-run seventh inning constructed against a previously-dominant Shohei Ohtani.

Morton’s six scoreless innings gave the Braves a chance to finally conquer Ohtani, who recorded 11 strikeouts and surrendered just one hit through the first six innings. The Angels’ two-way superstar entered the seventh inning having allowed just two earned runs and no home runs over his past 45 2/3 innings dating back to June 9.

After Matt Olson sparked the seven-run seventh with a two-run homer and Orlando Arcia further fueled it with a three-run homer, Ohtani had a 1.57 ERA over his past seven starts.

As for Morton, he has a 2.66 ERA and 33.8 percent strikeout rate over his past eight starts. He had a 5.63 ERA and a 22.0 percent strikeout rate through the 11 starts that preceded this stretch.

“The past month and a half or so, I feel like I've gotten back to where I was,” Morton said. “It's just that for the first month and a half of the season, I was so bad that the aggregate numbers don't look great.”

Morton doesn’t need to join teammates Max Fried and Kyle Wright as contenders for the National League Cy Young Award. The 38-year-old veteran simply has to be the reliable front-line starter he was down the stretch last year, when he posted a 2.71 ERA and produced a 30 percent strikeout rate over his final 20 regular season starts.

Those numbers are quite similar to the ones he has produced over his past eight starts. The Angels whiffed on 20 of the 47 swings taken against Morton, including eight of 15 swings against the curveball and three of five against the changeup.

“He’s been on a good little run,” Snitker said. “I don't think he's ever thrown the ball bad. It’s always been about rhythm, location and things like that. He’s getting himself going pretty good right now.”

Morton has now induced 20 or more whiffs in three of his past eight starts. How encouraging is this? Well, he hadn’t induced at least 20 whiffs in a game since doing so twice in 2018. The veteran pitcher began noticing a difference in hitters’ reactions after he began driving a little harder off the rubber during his June 5 start in Colorado.

When Morton was striking out just one out of every five batters faced and struggling to miss bats during the early part of this season, he had to remember he spent the offseason and an accelerated Spring Training recovering from the leg fracture he suffered in Game 1 of the World Series.

But now that the second half has arrived, he looks much like he did last year when he helped the Braves win the World Series.

“The past month and a half, I’ve thrown the ball as well as I would have hoped to, especially coming off that pretty rough month or two to start the season,” Morton said.