Charlie Morton allows four runs vs. Marlins

MIAMI — For Charlie Morton, the story of his start on Friday vs. the Marlins was the first and the fifth innings.

Morton threw 105 pitches over six innings, his length making up for a three-run first inning. But the Braves’ bats weren’t able to rally behind their starter, and Atlanta fell, 4-3, at loanDepot park.

“Well, absolutely [we’re scoreboard-watching],” manager Brian Snitker said. “We’re down to — well, we’ve got eight games left. Damn straight we are. Mets are getting beat, so that’s a good thing. We didn’t win, but we didn’t lose ground either.”

After getting the first out of the bottom of the first via a groundout, Morton gave up a single, a walk, a ground-rule double and another single before recording the second out. Even then, it came at the expense of a sac fly that plated the Marlins’ third run of the inning, putting the Braves in a hole right away.

“That first inning, just the three runs killed the momentum for me,” Morton said. “Because then it becomes a thing where it’s like, you’re just limiting. You’re trying to hold them off the boat to just limit it to three runs.”

Morton highlighted that ground-rule double to Jake Burger, which Miami’s DH hit on the first pitch he saw: a 95.3 mph four-seam fastball middle-away. The hit was emblematic of the inning for Morton, who had seen most of the Marlins’ young lineup only once or twice prior.

“The first hit, and then that walk — I mean, I just pitched them weird tonight,” Morton said. “And Burger, you know, he got pitches out over the plate. First pitch of the at-bat, first pitch that he’s seen all day and he drives it to right, did a really good job with it. I think with that group, you kind of have to, like, poke at them a little bit, try to figure out what they’re doing.

“Because there’s a lot of young guys over there, and there’s a simplicity to that. Like, a young guy coming up gets a shot at the big leagues. I’ve seen it before, and I know that those kinds of guys, you might have to be — it might not be as simple, because they’re so simple in their approach.”

All told, Morton allowed four runs on seven hits and four walks while striking out three. Morton allowed the first batter to reach base in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings. In the fifth, a leadoff free base to Connor Norby resulted in a run after Norby stole second, moved to third on a groundout, then came home on a wild pitch. For Morton, giving up that final run of the night was more frustrating than even the three-run first inning.

“The story of that game was the first inning — like, if I walk a couple of guys or give up a couple of hits, run my pitch count up or whatever, that’s fine,” Morton said. “Got to the fifth inning, and I felt like I was in a position where I could still limit that run, and I didn’t.

“The first inning, you look back and it’s like, ‘Man, like there’s still a lot of baseball to be played.’ And then it’s like, if I could limit them to three through six, that’s OK, considering I gave up three runs in the first. So to give up that run in the fifth, that was, for me, more troubling and more frustrating than the ones in the first.”

Of course, it didn’t help that the Braves didn’t give Morton much room to work. There were hits aplenty — nine to be exact — but Atlanta went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight on the bases. Orlando Arcia and Ramón Laureano each homered, but those were both solo shots.

“We had the deck stacked in our favor a couple of times and we just couldn’t get the big hit again,” Snitker said. “You know, if we pierce the gap in a couple of different situations, it’s a different outcome probably.

“[Charlie] put a lot of leadoff guys on, but, you know, it’s still doable. I mean, we just — we couldn’t get a big hit to make a difference.”