Charlie Morton is rounding into dominant form at just the right time...or is he?

Boy how a month can change things.

Charlie Morton finished July with a stretch of three straight losses, where he gave up 11 runs on 18 hits and 11 walks in just 15.1 innings against the Diamondbacks, Red Sox, and Angels. We even wrote the offseason preview article for him with the question "Are the Braves going to pick up the 2024 team option for Charlie Morton?" answered with a suggestion that at that price ($20M), they wouldn't really want to.

But August? Well, he's pitched well in August. After getting drubbed early by the Cubs on August 6th (five runs on four hits in 4.1 innings), Morton used the New York teams to "get right": He's sitting on an eighteen inning scoreless streak across his last three starts, with two double digit strikeout games across that stretch.

Mark Bowman of MLB.com wrote about Morton's dominance after last night's drubbing of the Mets, where Uncle Charlie went seven innings with only two hits and one walk, striking out eleven.

The Mets whiffed with seven of 17 swings against Morton’s curveball, with six of 13 swings against his four-seam fastball, with three of nine swings against his cutter and three of five swings against his changeup.
When Morton baffled the Yankees over six scoreless innings last Wednesday, 12 of the 15 whiffs he induced came via his curveball.

And as hard as it may be to take the results seriously on their face, given the ineptitude of the opponents, it's still impressive what Morton's been able to do these last few weeks.

“It’s amazing what he is doing with all the innings he has logged and all the seasons,” Snitker said to the media after last night's game. “The ball is still coming out of his hand so good. It’s a testament to a guy who had dedicated himself to taking care of himself.”

But is it sustainable? Morton tentatively lines up to start next Tuesday in Colorado, with a potential matchup after that with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first week of September.

A matchup at altitude, where every offense is better, and another against the 2nd-best team in the National League out in Los Angeles should give us a better idea.

But I trust Uncle Charlie to get the job done. After all, that curveball's still one of the best in the league.

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