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Pitching in a World Series game is an incredibly difficult task. It doesn’t matter who you are, who the opponent is, or how many times you have done so. It is especially difficult to get three outs in a row, including two strikeouts, on baseball’s biggest stage. Now try doing that with a broken leg.
Charlie Morton was pitching for the Atlanta Braves in the 2nd
inning of last night’s World Series Game 1 in Houston. Yuli Gurriel for the Astros lined a 102-mph
shot off of Morton’s right leg, which ricocheted to 1st baseman
Freddie Freeman for the out. There was a
momentary delay before Morton continued pitching. He would then end the inning on a strikeout of
Chas McCormick followed by a lineout from Martin Maldonado.
Morton then came back out for the 3rd inning
where he got Jose Altuve to strike out.
He then was forced to leave the game after physically being unable to continue. It would later be revealed that the final
sixteen pitches Morton pitched were on a broken leg. Braves’ head coach Brain Snitker said Morton
did not want to come out of the game but physically could not throw another
pitch. He wanted to stay out there for
his team. Pardon my French, but what an
absolute bad-ass move.
Charlie Morton threw 10 pitches on a broken leg, sat down for a half-inning, threw six more pitches, the last two of which were a 96-mph fastball and 80-mph curveball to strike out Jose Altuve.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 27, 2021
So, yeah, Charlie Morton threw 16 pitches pushing off the mound with a broken leg.
Ground Chuck
Charlie Morton originally came to the Pittsburgh Pirates
from the Braves in 2009 with Gorkys Hernandez and Jeff Locke in exchange for
Nate McLouth (remember all of them??).
Morton had a decent Pirates career.
In 142 starts he had a 4.39 ERA and 1.43 WHIP. He also had 563 strikeouts in 801
innings pitched with the Pirates. He was
a very productive 3rd or 4th starter for the Pirates for
a long time. Morton also pitched a great
Game 4 for the Pirates in the NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2013,
a game that should have clinched the series for the Bucs had they been able to
figure out Michael Wacha.
Unfortunately, it took Morton leaving the Pirates to find
his true potential. While the Pirates
always had Morton pitch to contact, so much so his nickname became “Ground
Chuck”, other teams let Morton pitch for the strikeout. After the Pirates traded Morton to the Philadelphia
Phillies after the 2015 season, he suffered a hamstring injury early in 2016
that ended his season. Following 2016,
the Phillies let Morton explore free agency.
Reinventing Himself
In 2017, Morton was finally allowed to reinvent himself,
even at 33 years old, with the Houston Astros.
And why not? Former Pirate Gerrit
Cole would do the same thing in 2018 with the same Astros, to further twist the knife, but
Morton was the one to firmly stick it in us in the first place.
Morton had a fantastic 2017 season, striking out 163 hitters
in 146.2 innings. He also brought his
WHIP down .2 points because he was no longer required to pitch to contact. He would continue his dominance in 2018 with
an .833 win-percentage for the Astros.
After the Astros let, the then 34-year old, Morton explore
free agency again, he signed with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2019. That season he struck out 240
hitters in 194.2 innings. He was an incredibly effective innings eater for a Rays team that only depended on two or three good starters
that season among a “bullpenning” strategy.
Morton then signed with the Braves after the 2020 season and that is how
he landed in Atlanta for this season.
It is clear in his numbers that the Pirates extremely misused Charlie Morton. They had no idea his strikeout potential and that is because head coach Clint Hurdle and pitching coach Ray Searage tried to fit everyone into a team strategy instead of adjusting the team's strategy to each individual. This is no more clear than in the Charlie Morton situation.
With the Pirates he
had 563 strikeouts in 801 innings. Since, Morton has 881 strikeouts in 749.1 innings. He
also has decreased his ERA an entire run per nine innings since leaving Pittsburgh. Just a gross misuse of a pitcher and one of Ray
Searage’s biggest offenses as a coach.
A Great Person and Teammate
In addition to his numbers becoming exceptionally better
with other teams, from what I have heard Morton is just an extremely nice
guy. Of course after last night’s
performance nobody is saying anything bad about him, but from what I can
tell nobody who knows him has ever had anything bad to say about Morton.
He was very well-liked among teammates, coaches, and the
Pittsburgh media during his time here.
He also showed last night that he is an all-time gamer with a ton of heart. At 37 years old, the guy is still as productive
as ever.
While yesterday, I came out with an article on Gerrit Cole
and his difficulties acclimating to the New York Yankees clubhouse environment, Morton
acclimates well into any roster he is on. The
guy is a true ballplayer, an overall great person, and I will always regret the
way the Pirates misused him for the entire first half of his career.