PITTSBURGH — After having a stretch of three rough starts, Manager Clint Hurdle decided that they will skip right-hander Charlie Morton’s next start, inserting rookie lefty Jeff Locke on Saturday against the Florida Marlins.
Over the three-game stretch, Morton has been charged with 12 runs on 22 hits over 14.0 innings with 11 walks.
“We talked to Charlie this afternoon,” Hurdle said. “We’re just going to back him off a few days. Actually, we’re going to push his start back to the 14th against St. Louis, just to give him a little more time, give him a breather. The last game, there was just some inconsistencies. Whether it’s fatigue, whether it’s him still trying to finish really well. Just to give him a little bit of a blow.”
Morton said he feels healthy despite the recent struggles.
“I’m feeling good,“ Morton said. “I didn’t really have any input or anything like that. It was basically their decision. I guess that’s what the plan is, to work on some things and to utilize the days that I’m not pitching to get work in.”
With seven days until his next outing on September 14th, Morton said he will use the time to work on getting back to the way he was pitching earlier in the season.
“I’ve learned a lot this year about what to do to be consistent and what has gotten away from me and led me to not be consistent” Morton said. “I think this is what I’m going to try to do, just go back to what I was trying to do when I was being consistent and avoid what I was doing when I wasn’t pitching well consistently. I think for a while there I was pitching pretty well consistently for a couple months. But June, July came around and everything was up and down, up and down. Obviously that wasn’t very much fun. Lately when I’ve been pitching well it seems like it’s streaky. I’ll have two or three good starts and then I’ll have two or three bad starts. That’s kind of what I’m trying to avoid.”
Morton has made 26 starts this season, where he’s posted a 9-9 record and a 3.81 ERA. Morton’s previous-high in starts in the Majors was 18 in 2009.
“I told him today how proud I was of him,“ Hurdle said. “Really, him and James [McDonald]. I’m proud of the other guys that got hurt and aren’t here able to finish in [Kevin] Correia and [Paul] Maholm, for the effort that they gave us. But for these two young men, where they were at the start of the season. The volume of work they’ve done this season. The adjustments have been made, the improvements have been made. I’m very encouraged by both their efforts and both of their seasons so far.”
Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports
Discussion about this post