The Detroit Tigers acquired Charlie Morton just before the trade deadline expired. They’ll waste little time to put him into their rotation.
Morton will make his Tigers debut when he starts the finale of a three-game series against the Phillies in Philadelphia on Sunday night.
Morton was a key member of the Houston rotation when the Astros won the 2017 World Series with A.J. Hinch as their manager. They’re back together again with the American League Central leaders.
“His presence alone will be really good for this team,” Hinch said. “He’s steady. He never gets too high or too low. He’s done it, seen it, experienced it. He’s gotten some of the most important outs and he’s also had to fight and claw his way back into being a factor this year.”
The 41-year-old right-hander appeared to have nothing left to give earlier this season. He had an 0-7 record with a 9.38 ERA in his first nine appearances with Baltimore.
After being banished to the bullpen for a short time, Morton (7-8, 5.42 ERA) returned to the Orioles rotation and turned his season around. Over his last 11 starts, he’s 7-1 with a 3.88 ERA.
“He’s going to really help our rotation,” Tigers general manager Scott Harris said. “We like Charlie because he’s battle-tested. He’s been up to 97 mph with his fastball and he’s got a swing-and-miss curveball. He’s pitched for A.J. before and he really endorsed him.”
In his last outing with the Orioles, he gave up three runs and eight hits in six innings against Toronto.
“He’s been on quite a good run,” Harris said. “His top-line performance (numbers) are a little misleading. Since the end of April, he’s been on a really good run, sub-4.00 ERA and throwing a ton of strikes with a ton of swing and miss.”
He’s 5-7 with a 4.81 ERA in 20 career starts against the Phillies.
Philadelphia starter Cristopher Sanchez (9-3, 2.55 ERA) had his streak of nine quality starts snapped in his last outing. The left-hander gave up four runs — tying his season high — and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings to the Chicago White Sox on Monday.
In his previous start, Sanchez notched a complete-game victory while striking out 12 and throwing 106 pitches in a 4-1 win over Boston on July 22.
“Didn’t know whether it was the travel, or coming off a complete game, the humidity, but the fifth, sixth and seventh, he turned it back on, and he had the finish back to his pitches,” manager Rob Thomson said.
Sanchez hasn’t previously faced Detroit in his career.
The teams have split the first two games of the series. Philadelphia rallied for a 5-4 win on Friday and Detroit held on for a 7-5 victory on Saturday.
Both games were closed out by the teams’ new closers. Jhoan Duran, acquired from Minnesota, got the save for the Phillies in the series opener. Kyle Finnegan recorded the last four outs for the Tigers in their bounce-back win.
-Field Level Media