Morton to take mound
The Astros tab Charlie Morton as their Game 4 pitcher, pitting him against reigning Cy Young winner Rick Porcello.
BOSTON — Charlie Morton’s only previous postseason start before Monday’s against the Red Sox at Fenway Park also came in Game 4 of a Division Series. It was 2013, and the sinkerballer was pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Morton opposed a dominant Michael Wacha that day at Pittsburgh’s PNC Park. They matched each other zero for zero for five innings. Then Morton began the sixth by walking now-teammate Carlos Beltran and followed it by surrendering a two-run homer to Matt Holliday. His day ended after he faced three more batters. St. Louis won 2-1.
Four years later, Morton is a different pitcher. His sinker sits at 95 mph as opposed to 93. He dominates lefthanded batters, who used to crush him. The 33-year-old righthander, long ago tagged with the “injury prone” label, made 25 starts this season and completed at least five innings in each.
Morton faced these same Boston Red Sox in his last regular-season start Sept. 29. He threw only 64 pitches over 51⁄3 innings of two-run ball before Astros manager A.J. Hinch pulled him. Morton showed only one cutter in the outing.
“I wasn’t consciously avoiding pitching a certain way,” Morton said Sunday. “A.J. came out and got me in the sixth and explained part of the reason was that it was likely I was going to be throwing at some point against the Red Sox in the next week. But I didn’t purposely alter my game plan. Because it was an important game for us, too. We were still in contention to possibly catch up to Cleveland (for the AL’s top seed).”
The Sept. 29 outing was only Morton’s second against the Red Sox in his 10-year career. He pitched five scoreless innings against them for the Pirates on Sept. 16, 2014. Of the players expected to be in the Red Sox lineup Monday, only Hanley Ramirez has seen Morton in more than six plate appearances, and Ramirez is 1-for-15 against him.
Rain is expected in Boston on Monday, which creates the possibility Game 4 could be pushed to Tuesday.
Were that to happen, both teams could bring back their Game 1 starters — Justin Verlander for the Astros and Chris Sale for the Red Sox — on their regular four days’ rest.
Rick Porcello is the scheduled Game 4 starter for Boston.
Porcello, the reigning Cy Young Award winner after going 22-4 in 2016, was 11-17 this year. The 28-year-old righthander had a 4.65 ERA in 2031⁄3 innings. He pitched a perfect eighth inning in relief in Boston’s Game 1 loss at Minute Maid Park.
The Astros clobbered Porcello in their only regular-season matchup on June 17 at Minute Maid. Porcello completed six innings in that game but allowed seven earned runs on 10 hits and a walk. Jose Altuve and Carlos Beltran homered off him.
Beltran has seen Porcello the most among the Astros’ players and has hit him well: 10-for27 with a home run and a double. Brian McCann (6-for-24 with a double) and Josh Reddick (3-for-10 with a home run) are the only other Astros with at least 10 plate appearances against Porcello.
Monday’s will be Porcello’s 11th career appearance in the playoffs, his fourth in a starting role. He has a 5.40 ERA in 212⁄3 career postseason innings.
McCullers gets taste of relief
After throwing 49 pitches over three-plus innings in his first career relief appearance Sunday, Lance McCullers Jr. won’t be available to pitch in Monday’s ALDS Game 4. But if a fifth game is needed to decide the Astros’ series against the Boston Red Sox, the 23-year-old righthander indicated he’ll be ready.
“If Game 5 comes around, I’ll be good to go,” McCullers said.
McCullers pitched well in his first relief outing, an experience he described as “very different” and “very weird.” He leaned heavily on his power curveball, throwing it 32 times and inducing seven swings and misses. He struck out four.
After taking over at the start of the fourth, McCullers pitched three scoreless innings. He began the seventh by walking Andrew Benintendi and allowing a single to Mookie Betts, after which he was replaced by Chris Devenski. Both runners scored.
Astros manager A.J. Hinch said he thought McCullers was “excellent.”
“I thought he was really good,” Hinch said. “We gave him some time and some notice the way we had him come in to start an inning. But I thought his stuff was really crisp. I thought he spun his breaking ball very well.
“In his last inning, he aimed the ball a little bit or got a little careful around the strike zone with the walk. And then the base hit, and I got him out of there. But I was happy with his outing.”
Odds and ends
The 10 runs the Astros allowed Sunday were their most in a postseason game since they gave up 10 in Game 1 of the 2004 NLDS against Atlanta. …
David Price’s fourinning scoreless relief outing Sunday was the longest by a Boston pitcher in the postseason since Pedro Martinez pitched six no-hit innings at Cleveland in Game 5 of the 1999 ALDS.