Dodgers get some revenge on Rays’ Morton
Game 3 starter last faced L.A. with Astros in 2017 World Series
ARLINGTON, Texas — Charlie Morton made the slow stroll to the dugout after one of the worst starts of his stellar, and somewhat improbable, four-year postseason run. Could that walk be his last? The lanky right-hander allowed seven hits and five runs in 4⅓ innings of a 6-2 loss to Los Angeles in Game 3 of the World Series on Friday night, ending Morton’s bid to tie Orlando Hernandez’s record eight straight winning postseason decisions. The Dodgers lead the series 2-1.
It was the first time the Dodgers had seen Morton in the postseason since he threw four scoreless innings to finish Houston’s 5-1 win in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series in LA.
Morton was coming off a victory over the Astros in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series that extended his major league record to four career victories in winner-take
all games. It was the second of two scoreless outings against Houston in the ALCS.
This one wasn’t winner-takeall, and Morton was rather ordinary in an otherwise extraordinary postseason career for an understated, and largely unknown, pitcher who overcame Tommy John elbow surgery and two hip operations to turn a 46-71 record through his first nine big league seasons into a 47-18 mark since.
“He’s set the bar as high as
anybody in the game right now in postseason success on the mound,” manager Kevin Cash said. “You hate to say ‘shocking’ because that’s unfair to Charlie. A couple of pitches here or there he’d like to have back, we’d like to have back just to keep us in the game a little longer.”
If he pitches again in this Series, it would likely be a Game 7 with another chance to extend his record in the clutch, although a relief appearance isn’t out of the question.
After that, Morton’s future is murky. The Rays hold a $15 million option on his contract for next season. If they decline it, Morton has talked about retiring. Morton, who turns 37 next month, lives in Bradenton, Florida, about 40 miles from Tropicana Field.
“So appreciative of Charlie, the presence in the clubhouse, what he does, the mentality he just naturally provides our clubhouse when we hand him the ball,” Cash said. “Game 3 is not going to change any way we feel about him.”
Mostly unknown or not, at least some Dodgers fans at the neutral-site World Series in Texas sure remembered him. One in the upper deck at the home of the Texas Rangers chanted “cheat-er” the entire time Morton pitched.
It didn’t matter to them that Morton wasn’t among the hitters caught up in the sign-stealing scandal that tarnished the championship the Astros won at Dodger Stadium. It only mattered that he was on the mound for that final out.
Morton was long gone before the final out of possibly his final game.