Charlie Morton addresses unusual walk-filled start on Friday night

Something's not quite right on the mound for Charlie Morton, but he's not sure what exactly.

"I made a (good) start after the All-Star break, and ever since then it’s just kind of hit-or-miss" said Morton to reporters after Friday night's game.

That White Sox start was seven scoreless innings with three hits and one walk, with Morton striking out four in a 9-0 Braves victory. But ever since then, he's struggled with the control, walking at least three batters in each subsequent outing and totaling 22 in his last five games.

Morton elaborated on the struggles with his stuff: "Trying to find my delivery, my release, ability to get my stuff down. I don’t know. I know the curveball’s kind of not been there. I’m spinning it OK, it’s just not doing the same things that it usually does. The depth isn’t there a lot of the times. That’s one thing I’m working on. I’m trying to get fastball command back. I just hit a patch there where there’s some things in my delivery I need to sort out.”

Atlanta's got to be happy that Morton was able to make it work last night - the scoreless outing broke a four-outing losing streak when Charlie had a 7.32 ERA, although as we mentioned, his seven walks brought his total in that same stretch to 22 (versus 21 strikeouts) in 24.2 innings.

The five inning outing continues a disturbing recent trend for Atlanta - seven straight games of five innings or fewer from the starting pitcher. The fact that it was scoreless, however, means it broke the "four or more runs allowed by the starter" streak. A lot of that is owing to New York's futility with runners in scoring position, batting 0-12, but it's still a performance that doesn't feel sustainable, both because most teams won't be as unlucky (bad?) as the Mets and also because of the stress it puts on your bullpen.

Atlanta's rotation struggles are doubly frustrating for many because the Braves stood pat and did not go out and get a starting pitcher at the trade deadline, instead choosing to wait for Max Fried and (eventually) Kyle Wright to return to the rotation. But with the recent struggles of Bryce Elder and Spencer Strider (although that's more bad luck than anything - he still leads the National League in Fielding Independent Pitching, at 2.93), it's a source of consternation for many in Braves Country.

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