Charlie Morton’s shutout gives Pittsburgh Pirates 5-0 victory over Cincinnati Reds – MLB Update
Pittsburgh Pirates’ Charlie Morton put on a brilliant performance as he shut-out Cincinnati Reds 5-0 at Great America Ball Park, Cincinnati on Wednesday, May 18.
Morton’s tremendous pitching dominated Cincinnati’s line-up, allowing only five hits. It was his second career shut-out and it could not have possibly come at a better time.
"I almost thought when Fred hit that ball it was going to go out," said Morton, who threw 69 strikes out of 106 pitches. “I just looked at it and was, 'Oh, no!' But Tabata was at the warning track and he caught it. I think it was an advantage to come in
and have some rest. Obviously I was worried about feeling rusty. I felt pretty sharp, pretty fresh."
With Morton’s magical pitching spell, Pedro Alvarez played his part with the bat. Alvarez hit a three-run homer to strengthen the offence and factored into strengthening the Pirates’ defence as well. So calculated and strategised was Wednesday’s game put
by Morton that the team manager had to praise it.
"It was good stuff: Ground Chuck," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. "I'm happy for him. I'm proud of him."
Alvarez, on the other hand, was faced with a frustrating circumstance. He had been unable to drive even a single run for last 15 games. His three-run homer, which also ended the 15-game no-run streak, came against Bronson Arroyo.
Arroyo, the starting pitcher of Cincinnati, is in deep trouble himself, as he has given no less than 10 homers, which makes 29 runs.
Arroyo has given up 16 of those runs against Morton. Whenever the two pitchers have rivalled, it is Morton who is the ultimate victor. "Any way you cut it, when Charlie's throwing that way against us, you can't afford to give up a lot of runs," Arroyo said.
Pedro struck the three-run homer hit in the fourth inning when Arroyo came for pitching. Morton had then complete ascendancy on the game and did not allow any Reds’ hitter any run. Arroyo, tried his best to limit the Pirates’ hitters, but was unable. Andrew
McCutchen struck a two-run homer in the seventh inning to pile up the Pirates’ score to 5-0, which remained beyond the Reds until the end of the game.
However, this was only the third loss of Cincinnati in the last 14 games they have played. This loss could be attributed to the characteristic performance of Morton. While Morton has proved a promising factor for the Pirates, it comes at a time when as a
team, they have suffered to perform consistently. Overall, this is the third shut-out this season by the Pirates’ pitchers.
Tags: