Right-hander Charlie Morton retired the first 10 Marlins he faced Thursday night in a 4-2 win, a wholly unexpected development. OK, he wobbled in the sixth inning, but it was progress.
For Morton, it might have been career-saving progress, at least as far as the Braves were concerned. Morton is a nice young man, and he clearly has the stuff to compete in the majors. But he has been crippled at this level by his wandering thoughts. To succeed here, Morton needs to look only as far ahead as the next pitch he is going to make. Thursday, he managed to do that when one of his pitches missed. In previous games, a mistake pitch would cause him to project a bad inning, which would lead to a lost game, which would lead to a losing season record. In other words, each pitch that left his hand carried his entire major league career with it.
The second component of Morton's progress involves a picture of Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright, who used to be in the Braves organization. He has a similar build and style, so pitching coach Roger McDowell juxtaposed images of Morton's and Wainwright's deliveries to emphasize how Wainwright was using his height to his advantage.
Morton hasn't been doing this. Instead, he has been shrinking his height from the moment he sets up through his delivery. He could have as many as five more starts coming, depending on which pitcher is skipped because of off days. But make no mistake, he is auditioning now. Next spring will be too late.
NATIONALS 7, BRAVES 3: RHP Jorge Campillo fell behind nearly every hitter once again, so it was another short night -- he didn't make it out of the fourth inning. OF/INF Greg Norton drove in two runs on another pinch-hit home run.
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