Charlie Morton and the third time through the order was a combination that proved disastrous for the Braves the last two times he took the hill. On Friday night, it worked out much better, as Morton worked through seven scoreless innings and the Braves cruised to a 5-0 win.
While the Marlins were initially planning to start out-of-nowhere success story Zach Thompson in this game (who was also Morton’s mound opponent last week in Atlanta), he was scratched with illness, and instead, Miami deployed a bullpen game. Anthony Bass was the first pitcher listed on the Marlins’ lineup card, and the Braves got to him early, as Freddie Freeman smacked a slider that hung around the middle of the zone out to right for a solo homer.