Charlie Morton faced three batters with a broken leg. Got all three of them out.
What Happened
Atlanta 6, Houston 2
Morton’d had some struggles in the first, loading the bases with two outs. In the second, a Yuli Gurriel groundball struck him on the shin. He got the out, but…his leg was fractured.
We just didn’t know it yet.
Morton stayed in the game, striking out Chas McCormick, inducing a Martín Maldonado lineout, and coming out for the third inning to strike out Jose Altuve before finally exiting, at which point an x-ray was conducted and…his leg was fractured.
Unbelievable stuff.
It’s a rough break for Atlanta, who’ll be without Morton for the rest of the series and had to turn to A.J. Minter for 43 pitches last night, rendering him quite possibly unavailable and at the very least probably less effective tonight. Still, they got the win, because while all that was happening in the bottoms of innings, the tops were full of Atlanta runs.
Jorge Soler led off with a long ball to left. Austin Riley doubled home Ozzie Albies later in the first. A run came home on a fielder’s choice in the second. And in the third, Adam Duvall homered to left to make it 5-0. There would be no Astros comeback. A run here, a little pressure there, but Atlanta’s bullpen held. 1-0, National League, heading into Game 2.
The Heroes
Win Probability Added leaders, from FanGraphs:
- Morton (0.11)
- Soler (0.09)
What It Means
Atlanta is now the World Series favorite, but not an overwhelming one. Something like 3-in-5 likely to win it all.
Other Notes
- Atlanta’s bullpen allowed two runs, but they didn’t allow any on homers and they struck out eight while walking just one over six and two-thirds innings of work. Credit to Minter, Luke Jackson, Tyler Matzek, and Will Smith.
- Eddie Rosario made a good throw in the eighth to cut down Gurriel trying to leg a single into a double.
- Soler, Freddie Freeman, Albies, Rosario, Duvall, and Dansby Swanson were each on base twice for the visitors.
- Yordan Alvarez tripled and walked, Michael Brantley had three hits, Gurriel and Kyle Tucker each had two hits for the Astros.
- Jake Odorizzi had a dominant outing in relief, striking out five while walking none in seven outs of work. Yimi García, Phil Maton, Ryne Stanek, and Brooks Raley were similarly effective. Seven innings of work for the bullpen. One earned run, no homers, ten strikeouts, only two walks.
- Albies stole a base, so one free Doritos Loco Taco on Thursday to everyone in the United States (who asks for one).
***
Tonight:
The Basics
Where: Minute Maid Park
When: 8:09 PM EDT
Broadcast: FOX
Starting Pitchers: José Urquidy (HOU), Max Fried (ATL)
Odds: HOU -112; ATL +102; o/u 8½ [English translation: Houston’s roughly 52% likely to win, Atlanta’s roughly 48% likely to win, the expected number of runs scored is 8.5]
The Details
You don’t want to fall down 2-0, and you don’t want to fall down 2-0 heading to the other team’s city, but with Morton out, Atlanta only has one great starting pitching option left, and he’s throwing tonight (and most likely in Game 6, should the series get there). In other words, the Astros don’t have to win tonight, and Atlanta could really use this one. Lose it, they’ll most likely be underdogs again, even with home-field advantage.
Minter figures to be unavailable for the visitors, and Matzek and Jackson may be a bit worn down after both pitching across innings last night. For the Astros, Odorizzi should be unavailable and Maton and Stanek might be strained, but Kendall Graveman and Ryan Pressly should be sharp, which brings the pressure to José Urquidy, the 26-year-old righty who posted a 4.14 FIP and 3.87 xERA in the regular season but had a bad time in his lone outing of the postseason so far, yielding five earned runs and recording just five outs in Game 3 against the Red Sox. He missed July and August with a shoulder issue.
The Stars
Is it Soler’s turn to shine? Can Fried get his team two wins away? Will Urquidy have a moment? Can the meat of the Astros’ order produce? Will Atlanta need to rely on its bullpen b-team? Will that bullpen b-team show up?
One thing to remember with this Atlanta roster is that for as outstanding as Ronald Acuña Jr. is, all three of Soler, Pederson, and Rosario were brought in to fill in for him and for Marcell Ozuna, who’s agreed to a pretrial diversion program in his domestic violence case (as we always should say, the survivor there is more important than Atlanta’s season). Over roughly two months with the team, those three guys combined for 1.9 fWAR, which isn’t great, but was serviceable. In the postseason, they’ve now combined for well over one WPA, and nearly a quarter of cWPA. So, for as much as we’ve missed Acuña, Atlanta’s been left just fine without him since making it to October, at least so far.
Game 2. Of seven? Of four? We’ll see.
