A number of Philadelphia Phillies starting rotation members got off to slow starts, but are now starting to round to form.
Five shutout innings on Sunday in Jeremy Hellickson‘s first lengthy spring outing were followed up by the first truly strong start of the Grapefruit League season by young right-hander Aaron Nola. The team then received a workmanlike four innings from Jerad Eickhoff in his first start.
Even before those outings, lefty Adam Morgan and righty Vincent Velasquez were dueling with solid appearances in a fight for the 5th starter role. With all that positivity, veteran newcomer Charlie Morton stepped on to the mound yesterday for an evening contest in Kissimmee, Florida against the Houston Astros.
Morton continued the series of solid Phillies starting pitching efforts, going 5.1 innings over which he allowed just four hits and two runs, neither of those earned. He struck out five and walked a pair of Astros’ batters in a game ultimately won by the hosts in a 2-1 decision.
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Especially encouraging when considering that he will be pitching half of his games at Citizens Bank Park, Morton kept the ball on the ground for the most part. 11 of his 12 recorded outs came on grounders, and he allowed just one extra-base hit, a two-out double by Jason Castro in the bottom of the 4th inning.
Morton did struggle some with command, which was not too surprising considering that his work has been limited over the past couple of weeks by a bout with the flu that has raged through the Phillies clubhouse. He tossed 94 pitches yesterday in working into a 6th inning, a frame that he planned to complete but was simply unable.
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“Tonight the goal was to go out there and get six ups, to get out there for the sixth inning,” said Morton per the AP as mccall.com reported. “The way you do that is by getting outs, and you can’t get to the sixth inning if you’re not getting outs. If I go out there and throw 90 pitches in four innings, that’s not doing anybody any good. That’s way too many pitches.”
Still, it was good work for the 32-year old eight-year big league veteran who has been slotted in by manager Pete Mackanin as third in the rotation behind Hellickson and Nola. He should receive two more starts in which to continue building up his arm before making his first start of the regular season in an afternoon affair on Thursday, April 7th at Cincinnati.