Morton starts strong, fades in first OD start

ST. PETERSBURG -- It wasn’t the Opening Day start Charlie Morton envisioned.

Morton admitted that the moments before the game were unusual, given the circumstances. There was nobody in attendance and the loudest moments came from the fake crowd noise that was piped in through the speakers at Tropicana Field.

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Even more frustrating for Morton was the fact that he didn’t have his best stuff. Morton, who waited 13 big league seasons before making his first Opening Day start, allowed six runs in four-plus innings as the Rays dropped the opener to the Blue Jays, 6-4, on Friday.

“I think there was just so much anticipation and there were so many things to get us to this point, and I go out there and give up six runs in four innings,” Morton said. “It’s a pretty big letdown.”

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The night began with Morton pounding the strike zone, throwing 22 of his first 28 pitches for strikes, guiding him through three scoreless frames. In the fourth inning, however, the Blue Jays were able to break through.

Cavan Biggio led off the inning with a bunt single, which was followed by a walk to Travis Shaw, bookended by two singles from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Randall Grichuk, giving the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead. Consecutive sacrifice flies by Rowdy Tellez and Teoscar Hernadez put Toronto ahead 3-0.

In the fifth, Biggio delivered the big blow, launching a three-run homer off Morton, pushing Toronto’s lead to 6-1.

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“You gotta credit the Blue Jays' lineup,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash. “They put themselves in some pretty good counts. And once they got the counts to their advantage, they had good at-bats. And then obviously Biggio there with the dagger.

“I thought Charlie looked pretty good coming out of the gate, but we just had two back-to-back innings kind of unfold on us and ultimately ended up being the ballgame.”

Morton said that he didn’t feel particularly sharp with his pitches and mostly stuck to a fastball-curveball mix throughout the night. He threw the fastball and curveball 28 times apiece.

With the curveball, Morton recorded just one swinging strike and just four called strikes. Last season, he led the Majors with 207 strikes on his signature curveball. Morton said that he believes he’ll get a better feel for the spin and break on the pitch once he throws it more later into the season.

Morton’s fastball was also a few ticks below his norm. On the 28 fastballs, the average velocity was 92.2, which is significantly lower than his 94.7 average in 2019.

“I didn’t feel the stuff coming out of my hand was great,” Morton said. “I didn’t feel like my fastball was very threatening. It could be a few things. I’ll get with [pitching coach Kyle Snyder] and see what those pitches are actually doing.”

Aside from Morton’s struggles, the Rays' offense wasn’t able to get the big hit when they needed it. They went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base on Friday.

The biggest spot came in the eighth inning when the Rays had the bases loaded with one out, but Blue Jays reliever Rafael Dolis was able to get Yandy Díaz to pop out to second base and then strike out Hunter Renfroe looking to end the threat.

“That was kind of the story,” Cash said. “We just didn’t capitalize with some guys on base tonight.”

With just a 60-game regular season, the Rays understand the magnitude of each game and the significance of them coming back on Saturday to try and even the series against the Blue Jays.

“We like to win,” said Rays shortstop Willy Adames, who went 2-for-3 with an RBI on Friday. “I think for us, it’s going to be really important tomorrow to get that win, but we just have to continue to play hard and just try to do the little things to win the game and just focus on what we can control.”