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Charlie Morton gets the ball as Atlanta Braves resume hostilities with Rockies

Chris Sale and the Atlanta Braves got the job done on Tuesday night against the Colorado Rockies. Now they’re looking to seal the series win with a victory tonight as both teams gear up for the second game of this three-game series.

Charlie Morton is getting the start for tonight’s game and the good news for him and the Braves is that he’s been decent in his most recent four starts. If you extend it to what he’s done since August 1, he’s made it into the sixth inning in five of his past six starts. The issue is that this includes a start where he got absolutely pulverized by the Brewers but it does mean that’s been part of the history-making rotation that hasn’t given up more than three runs in a start in what seems like ages now.

The issue with Morton has been that he’s usually been dealing with a ton of traffic while he’s out there. He still picks up his fair share of strikeouts but he’ll do it while either giving up a bunch of hits or walking a few guys. His last start in Philadelphia was an example of this, where he still only gave up three runs and struck out seven batters but also walked four batters and gave up five hits in the process.

At this point in Morton’s fine career, it is what it is and that’s just something that the Braves will have to deal with while he’s out there. Maybe we’ll see him pull out a performance like the ones we saw while he was on the West Coast and considering what Colorado’s offense is like away from Coors Field, it’s entirely possible! I’m leaning towards believing that he’s got a good performance in store for all of us tonight.

Just like Chris Sale, Charlie Morton did not pitch in that weekend-long slugfest that took place at Coors Field. None of the Braves have seen Bradley Blalock, either. He’s making his fifth career start tonight and his sixth appearance overall. In his first three appearances, he gave up a bunch of hits but managed to avoid getting tagged for a significant amount of runs. That changed in his most recent outing against the Marlins, which is when Miami tagged him for seven runs (six earned) over just four innings. You could chalk this up to Coors being Coors but he made it into the sixth inning on August 18 and only gave up one run, so he’s shown that he can navigate the high altitude up there.

Blalock will be bringing a four-seamer, a split-finger, a slider and a curveball to the table in this one, with his splitter being his most effective pitch at the moment. It has an xBA of .188, a Whiff percentage of 38 percent and a Put Away percentage of 31 percent. He’s averaging 94 on his fastball at the moment and his breaking pitches are in the mid-to-low 80s, so he’s not going to blow people out of the water out there. Still, the Braves aren’t really in a position where they can take any pitcher lightly so they’ll still need to assert themselves in this one.

Just like last night, this is a game that the Braves absolutely have to have. With the Mets breathing down their necks and both Arizona and San Diego still within striking distance, the Braves have to take advantage of games like this against teams who are simply playing out the string. Atlanta has to take the Rockies out tonight and hopefully a good performance from Charlie Morton and some timely hitting from the offense can help bring home the series win for the Braves tonight.