SAN FRANCISCO — Charlie Morton didn’t get a decision Tuesday on a night when he notched his 2,000th career strikeout, but his teammate and close friend Travis d’Arnaud made sure Morton and the Braves could celebrate the accomplishment properly after a big team win.
D’Arnaud, whose 10th-inning sacrifice fly drove in the only run of the Braves’ win in Monday’s series opener against the San Francisco Giants, came through again in extra innings Tuesday with an RBI single that drove in the final run of a 4-3, 10-inning win at Oracle Park, assuring at least a split of the four-game series.
“He doesn’t get caught up in the moment; he understands how this thing works,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of d’Arnaud, who also had a third-inning solo homer. “There’s never any panic in an at-bat or when he’s playing. That veteran (experience), especially at that position, when he plays it’s … you can’t go find that anywhere.”
Morton was thrilled that d’Arnaud was such a big part of the memorable night. Morton needed eight strikeouts to become the seventh active pitcher with 2,000 and he got eight, striking out Mike Yastrzemski in his sixth and final inning before exiting with a 3-2 lead.
“I’ve known Travy now since 2019,” said the 40-year-old Morton, teammates with d’Arnaud in 2019 with Tampa Bay and for the past four seasons with the Braves. “We’ve worked together a lot. So it was neat to have Travy back there. He did a heck of a job. And I love this ballpark. To be able to share it with my teammates here, and the staff and coaches, it meant a lot.”
Morton added about d’Arnaud, who’s five years younger: “He’s great. He always says, like, ‘Not bad for 35.’ He’s still got pop, still got an arm, calls a great game. Just a great teammate. He’s a guy I’m gonna miss a lot when I’m not here anymore.”
Moments after the team feted him during a brief celebration in the closed clubhouse, Morton fought back emotions as he described calling his wife, Cindy, who was home in Florida with their four young children.
“Got his 2,00oth strikeout, which is awesome,” Snitker said. “Great for him. And that was a big start, too. Our bullpen was a little short tonight. So, yeah, just a good team win.”
Morton might retire after this, his 17th season, and he credits his wife with making it possible to have the career he’s had, a career that didn’t take off until he was well into his 30s after battling injuries and lack of confidence.
“I met her in ’06, and she’s been a rock in our family and in my career,” Morton said. “I’ve gotten to experience moments that I didn’t think I ever would have eight, nine, 10 years ago. I’m able to look back and really … you know, it is, it’s a long time. I’m really grateful that I’ve gotten to experience a lot of what I have, considering the fact that I wasn’t sure that I was even going to be given the ball to start anywhere after 2015.”
Morton was 45-70 with a 4.54 ERA in 158 games through his age-31 season in 2015, including one season with Atlanta and six with Pittsburgh. He missed most of 2016 due to injury, but in the past eight seasons, he’s 90-49 with a 3.63 ERA in 212 starts and has 1,370 strikeouts in 1,188 innings in the period spanning ages 33-40.
It’s also in the latter half of his career that Morton has left a mark in every clubhouse he’s been with in Houston, Tampa Bay and Atlanta, with players who never tire of talking about what a terrific teammate and person he is.
“He loves everybody,” d’Arnaud said. “He always encourages everybody. He’s always there for everybody. You can call him at any time, and if he doesn’t know it he’ll figure it out. He’s always there for everybody and always cheers everybody up. For him to get 2,000 strikeouts is pretty incredible.”
Congrats Chuck! 👏#BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/PpGdExhDMW
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) August 14, 2024
Morton made a point to start his postgame interview by saying how much he loves Braves catcher Sean Murphy, before saying how happy he was that he could have d’Arnaud behind the plate for his milestone strikeout. D’Arnaud felt the same.
“Grateful and thankful I was a part of it,” d’Arnaud said. “Everybody in the dugout knew. I swear, everybody came up to me (after the fifth inning) in the dugout and said, ‘Hey, he only has one more strikeout for it.’ So we were trying to get strikeouts, but they were getting aggressive early and putting balls in play.”
After d’Arnaud’s ground-ball single through the right side drove in the go-ahead run in the 10th, Braves closer Raisel Iglesias pitched a perfect inning for the save, one night after Iglesias pitched the ninth and 10th innings of the 1-0 win over the Giants. He was perfect with four strikeouts in that two-inning stint.
Snitker had intended not to use Iglesias Tuesday. But when the game went to 10 innings and the Braves took the lead: “I called down there late in the game to see what he thought, and he was raring to go. That’s big. That’s tough duty with that tying or go-ahead run starting at second base … We did a lot of really good things tonight.”
The Braves gained a full game on the three teams chasing them in the wild-card standings, who all lost. They moved to two games ahead of the New York Mets, three ahead of the Giants and 3 1/2 ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals.
NL East leader Philadelphia also lost, leaving the second-place Braves six games behind the Phillies in the division with 43 games to play for Atlanta including seven coming up against the Phillies — three in Atlanta Aug. 20-22, and four at Philadelphia Aug. 29-Sept. 1.
“The way we’re going, if we’re going to make a push and do anything, that’s kind of the way it starts happening,” Snitker said of the past two nights.
While it would be fair to say Snitker had a gut feeling about starting outfielders Ramón Laureano and Eli White over Adam Duvall against Giants lefty Kyle Harrison, Duvall’s dreadful hitting slump made the decision easier.
It worked out perfectly for the Braves, who got a second-inning home run from Laureano and a spectacular ninth-inning running, leaping, twisting catch by White at the center-field wall, robbing Patrick Bailey of a leadoff extra-base hit — a play that may well have saved the game and set the stage for more 10th-inning heroics from d’Arnaud.
Travis d’Arnaud hits a 10th-inning game-winning RBI single against the Giants. (Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
“That was a cool moment, happy to be able to make that play for the team here in a critical situation,” said White, who could be the odd man out Wednesday when the Braves activate center fielder Michael Harris II from the 60-day injured list since White is the only one with minor league options among him, Laureano and Duvall.
But with White’s speed and defense, perhaps they keep him.
“Anything I can do to help this team win,” White said. “Whatever my role’s going to be I’m going to be prepared and try to get the job done and help the team however I can.”
“It’s just more to get Adam a break,” Snitker said when asked before the game about not playing Duvall. “He hasn’t been going real good, and I just thought maybe getting him a day to clear his mind and relax, and it doesn’t hurt to have Laureano’s speed in right-center field out there, too, along with Eli.”
Duvall is ostensibly on the team for one main purpose, to hit against lefties, although he was in the regular lineup for two months after Ronald Acuña Jr.’s season-ending knee injury May 27 before the Braves traded for Jorge Soler two weeks ago.
Duvall’s flaws were exposed when he played every day and had to face a majority of right-handers, against whom he’s struggled mightily all season. And lately, he hasn’t hit lefties either, evident by his brutal 1-for-28 skid with one walk and 17 strikeouts over his past 10 games including six starts. He has a .136 OPS in that stretch.
For the season, Duvall still has a .490 slugging percentage and .826 OPS in 116 plate appearances against lefties, but those stats have slipped in recent weeks. And against right-handers, he’s hit a meager .146 with a .408 OPS in 192 plate appearances, the worst OPS in the majors among hitters with at least 80 PAs vs. righties.
Soler added an RBI double in the two-run second inning and d’Arnaud homered off Harrison in the third to push the lead to 3-1, before Tyler Fitzgerald homered off Morton to start the bottom of the third.
(Top photo of Charlie Morton: Ed Szczepanski / USA Today)
