Punch-out machine
Morton fans half of 26 batters he faces over 7 shutout innings
Charlie Morton lived up to his nickname Tuesday night. No, not Ground Chuck, a name that derives from his reputation for ground-ball outs. He made Toronto Blue Jays batters look so ambushed and futile that his nom de guerre, “CFM,” captures Morton at his nastiest, with a letter in place of a profane middle name.
He struck out 13 of the 26 batters he faced. He struck out the side in the first and fourth innings. He struck out five batters in a row during his most dominant stretch, which ended when he allowed his first hit of the game with two outs in the fifth.
Morton’s seven scoreless innings and a two-out single from Evan Gattis sustained the Astros’ two-run lead, but eighth-inning home runs from Jake Marisnick and Alex Bregman buried the Blue Jays 7-0 at Minute Maid Park.
Morton (10-1, 2.54 ERA) kept batters looking and chasing with a combination of high heaters and disappearing curveballs. He allowed four hits and finished all but one inning with a stroll to the dugout. The time he did not was to watch Marisnick make a spectacular catch and chuckle about the close call.
A day after Randal Grichuk robbed George Springer of a home run, Marisnick stole a breakthrough hit away from the Blue Jays to preserve Morton’s masterful start.
With two outs in the sixth,
Morton allowed a single and walk. Justin Smoak then launched a fly ball 371 feet to leftcenter. There was little time for Marisnick and left fielder Josh Reddick to sort out who had a shot at a catch, so Marisnick flashed a look and took flight.
He soared into the chain link fence, climbed off one foot to extend his reach and snatched the ball.
“Come on!” Marisnick shouted, after checking his mitt and pumping his fists.
Starter Ryan Borucki, a 24year-old lefty whose clean-shaven face makes him look almost half his age, made his major league debut for the Blue Jays.
Without a major league scouting report on Borucki, Bregman said the minor league video on him was too blurry to get clear looks. Manager A.J. Hinch said the Astros had to get a read on the pitcher “the old-fashion way.”
It proved difficult. Aside from Jose Altuve, who walked three times on 12 pitches, Borucki killed the Astros’ at-bats softly with 92 mph fastballs and 84 mph changeups. The rookie held the Astros — the scoring leader and the second-best offense against lefthanded pitchers — to two runs over six innings.
The Astros threatened to score in the third. Bregman hit the first of his three doubles and Altuve walked. Gattis ripped a line drive, but Jays shortstop Aledmys Diaz made a diving play off one hop and sprang from the dirt for a spectacular throw.
The Astros stranded six runners through four innings.
The earlier opportunity repeated itself in the fifth: Bregman doubled, Altuve walked and Gattis batted with a chance to break the scoreless game. His two-out single up the middle cleared the bases to put the Astros ahead 2-0. Gattis leads the team with 51 RBIs. His 27 RBIs this month are two shy of the team’s June record.
The Astros got six hits off Borucki and doubled that total off Toronto’s bullpen.
In the eighth inning, Marisnick added his second hit of the night, a three-run homer that banged off a left-field sign beneath the train tracks.
The Astros had two outs, but they were not finished. Springer doubled and came up from his head-first slide smiling with two thumbs up. The hit ended his 0for-20 slump.
“He did it,” Hinch said with a grin. “He got a hit.”
Bregman followed with his 13th home run, a deep fly ball into the Crawford Boxes, and a little flip of his bat.
Marisnick has struggled to make contact and nudge his batting average above .200 this season. Tuesday was one of the few games in which Marisnick played a pivotal role.
In Marisnick snuffing out a two-run double and driving in three with a homer, Bregman said his teammate is “plus five runs today.”
Marisnick enjoyed the chance to lord his catch over Reddick, who typically is the team leader in one-upmanship.
“I’m going to need a poster of that,” Marisnick said. “With Reddick a little bit lower than me.”
The defending World Series champions are 53-28 halfway through the season. Bregman said that because a few players have had to carry the offense at different times the team has not yet played its best baseball.
“Not even close,” he said. “When our offense is working on all cylinders, it happens fast and it’s a scary thing. You put that with our pitching staff, and it’s unstoppable.”
Morton did not even realize he earned his 10th win.
“Oh, yeah, I didn’t even think about that,” he said.
His eyes grew big. A smile slowly reached from ear to ear.
“That’s a lot,” he added. “That’s good.”