- Fantasy MLB DFS Picks Breakdown (Sunday, June 18): Trust Morton against Colorado? Fantasy Labs
- MLB DFS Picks: Top Pitchers & Stacks for Sunday’s ‘Covering the Bases’ (June 18) Rotogrinders
- DraftKings, FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Picks (6/18/23): MLB DFS Lineups | Fantasy News RotoBaller
- MLB Sunday betting previews and latest lines for the best matchups – FanNation | A part of the Sports Illustrated Network Sports Illustrated
- MLB DFS Picks, Spotlight Pitchers & Top Stacks: Target Mariners Bats vs. Lance Lynn (June 18) stokastic.com
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Morton
Princess Diana biographer Andrew Morton says accuracy of scenes in ‘The Crown’ left him ‘shaken’
Morton wrote his 1992 bestselling book with the cooperation of the Princess of Wales, who sent him audio recordings so that he could tell her story.
“When you see Diana talking, you’re really seeing what happened, and she’s using many of the words which she sent to me through tape recordings,” Morton told “Good Morning America.” “It left me breathless, and it took me back all those years.”
He continued, “I don’t say this very often, but I was shaken.”
Keith Bernstein/Netflix
Morton said he was asked to consult on the episode that featured his collaboration with Diana.
He said the script writers’ attention to detail included asking him what color the wallpaper was in his daughter’s bedroom, which also served as his office at the time.
Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images, FILE
This season of “The Crown,” a fictionalized show that depicts the behind the scenes lives of Britain’s royal family from the 1950s onward, focuses on the family’s modern history, including the marital troubles between Diana and King Charles III, then the Prince of Wales.
The couple officially divorced in 1996, just four years after Morton’s book was published.
Morton said watching the show has given him new perspective on how Diana may have been feeling behind the scenes.
“What I didn’t realize at the time was her sense of isolation, her sense of despair inside the royal system,” he said of the late princess.
Bettmann Archive/Getty Images, FILE
This season, in a first, Netflix added a disclaimer to its trailer for “The Crown” amid criticism from some, including actress Judi Dench, who accused the show of “crude sensationalism” and said she worried many viewers of the show “may take its version of history as being wholly true.”
The disclaimer added by Netflix reads, “Inspired by real events, this fictional dramatisation tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II and the political and personal events that shaped her reign.”
The palace has not commented on the new season of “The Crown.”
“I think the book is a complete picture of Her Majesty,” Morton said. “She was only 25 when she came to the throne and she became the CEO of Great Britain, Inc., and it was a tremendous tsunami of responsibility that threatened to overwhelm her.”
Morton said the book charts the queen’s journey of navigating the responsibility she faced, while also being a mother and wife.
“I hope that readers come away with the human being. She’s a woman, a grandmother, a great grandmother,” he said. “She has a compelling story and hers has been a compelling journey, and we’re all sad that she’s gone.”
Charlie Morton exits NLDS Game 4 start after 2 innings
PHILADELPHIA — Just like the last time he made a high-stakes start in the postseason, the biggest blow against the Braves’ Charlie Morton came via a comebacker.
And Game 4 starter Charlie Morton, the winningest pitcher in Major League history in postseason elimination games, was knocked down and eventually out on Saturday afternoon after taking a line drive off his throwing arm in the decisive third inning of the Braves’ season-ending 8-3 loss at Citizens Bank Park.
Just like that, the defending World Series champions — 101-game winners during the regular season and NL East champs for the fifth consecutive season — were out.
“Losing stinks,” said Morton, who has already signed with Atlanta for 2023. “Especially when you get a chance to finally taste the win.”
This was not the way the Braves drew up the series. Their starters ranked third of 15 NL teams in innings pitched during the regular season (890 1/3) and fifth in ERA (3.72), but their NLDS quartet combined to surrender 14 runs (12 earned) on 17 hits in 13 2/3 innings over four games.
Add it up and, even with Wright’s gem in a 3-0 win in Game 2, Atlanta’s starters were 1-3 with a 7.90 ERA in the NLDS. Philadelphia took the lead in the first inning of Game 1, the third inning of Game 3 and the second inning of Game 4, and it never looked back on its way to the NL Championship Series.
One couldn’t help but wonder: Could it have been a different series with the Braves’ starters at 100 percent?
“I don’t think that’s fair to Philly. We don’t want to make excuses,” said Wright. “I think they played really well, and they beat us. You never know what those guys are going through, too. You can play that game, but you don’t want to take any credit away from them.”
Morton’s start on Saturday landed 354 days after he threw 16 pitches on a fractured right fibula in the third inning of Game 1 of last year’s World Series, when he retired all three Astros hitters he faced following a Yuli Gurriel grounder off his shin. On Saturday afternoon against the Phillies, it was a painful case of déjà vu.
Leading off the second inning, Philadelphia third baseman Alec Bohm hit a 71.8 mph line drive that struck Morton’s right arm just inches from the elbow. It altered the course of Morton’s latest effort in a postseason elimination game. Before that moment, his fastball was ranging between 95.5-96.6 mph. After that moment, 11 of his 19 pitches for the remainder of the inning were curveballs, and the fastballs ranged between 93.7-95.3 mph.
The Phillies took advantage. Morton stayed in the game to strike out Bryson Stott before Jean Segura hit a curveball for a single and Brandon Marsh, batting ninth, smashed another curveball for a three-run home run and a 3-0 lead.
Morton managed to finish the inning and took the mound to warm up for the third, but he never threw a pitch. After several warmup tosses, he was met on the mound by Braves manager Brian Snitker and an athletic trainer before making the slow walk to the dugout.
“Once I saw him coming out, I knew,” Morton said.
Said Snitker: “They did X-ray him. There wasn’t anything in the joint. I’m thinking, ‘If it doesn’t go well, then I think we’re in a deeper hole.’ You know what, I watched the warmup pitches and didn’t like it — I just told him my eye test wasn’t real good right there. He would have kept going. I just thought we were at a point where we don’t need to try it.”
Morton conceded after the game that his elbow had begun to tighten up between innings. But still, he came out of the game reluctantly. Collin McHugh took over, had as much time as he needed to warm up and promptly surrendered an inside-the-park home run to J.T. Realmuto, which extended Philadelphia’s lead to 4-1.
“There’s nobody who wanted to be out there more than Charlie did,” McHugh said. “The decision was kind of taken away from him.”
“That’s where you have to give Snit a lot of credit,” Wright said. “I think he was looking after Charlie and wanted to protect him, but at the same time, he didn’t want to really risk anything. It helps when you have a good bullpen to make that decision, but just as a competitor, man, it sucks that that’s how it had to end.”
Said first baseman Matt Olson: “I think [Morton] was trying not to act like it was hurting him, but I think everybody could kind of see that he wasn’t necessarily the same with it. It’s a really unfortunate thing that happened. Charlie cares a bunch, and we love playing behind him. We had to pivot and try to win another way.”
Morton retreated to the clubhouse before returning to the dugout for moral support as the Braves tried to hit their way back into the game. The Phillies didn’t let it happen.
“I thought the guys were good. I thought we were in a good spot. I thought the team had energy,” Morton said. “But at the same time, I was in a weird spot there mentally, because I’m coming out of the game. I felt like I didn’t do my job, and that’s a tough feeling, because that game meant a lot to me and this team means a lot to me.”
When Did Braves Pitcher Charlie Morton Break His Leg?
HOUSTON — At a time when old-fashioned aces have become a rarity, Atlanta has lost one of the game’s best postseason performers for the rest of the World Series. And in a sequence of events worthy of the battle-tested hurlers of the olden days, Charlie Morton appeared to record at least one out, if not three, with a broken leg.
Morton, Atlanta’s veteran right-handed starter, sustained a fractured right fibula at some point after he was struck on the leg by a sharply hit ball off the bat of Yuli Gurriel in the second inning of Atlanta’s 6-2 victory over the Houston Astros in Game 1 of the World Series Tuesday at Minute Maid Park.
X-rays performed at the stadium confirmed the fracture, and Morton was ruled out for the rest of the series. Atlanta said Morton, 37, would be available for next spring training, but would not be able to help the team win the 2021 World Series.
The big question after Atlanta’s win was when the fracture had occurred. Initial reports indicated Morton had faced three batters with the fracture, retiring all three, but the team suggested after the game that the actual break came on his final pitch of the night.
“For us to lose him in Game 1, it’s a dagger,” Atlanta catcher Travis d’Arnaud said, “But he’s still going to be there with us, cheering us on and still trying to teach us everything that he’s learned along his path and his career.”
After Gurriel’s ball struck Morton, he ran to cover first base without a noticeable limp and remained in the game. He proceeded to strike out Chas McCormick and then induced a line-drive out from Martín Maldonado to end the inning.
Between innings, Morton received some medical attention, and Atlanta Manager Brian Snitker indicated the pitcher had an initial X-ray that was negative. Morton then threw a ball against a wall in the tunnel to the dugout, Snitker said, and proclaimed himself ready to return to the game. He said it hurt more to run than to throw.
“That X-ray, when he went back out, didn’t show anything,” Snitker said and added, “Well, he got one after he came out of the game and felt hurt.”
In the third, Morton struck out Jose Altuve, but landed awkwardly after throwing the final pitch of the at-bat, reaching down to the spot where he had been hit by Gurriel’s liner.
Moments later, Morton hobbled off the field, ending his season 16 pitches after the ball had hit him. He was replaced by A.J. Minter, who earned the win in relief.
“He struck out a guy on a broken leg,” Minter said. “It’s pretty remarkable.”
Snitker suggested that the fracture might not have developed until Morton went back for the third inning.
“I’m not a doctor and all that, but I don’t know that it was broken when he did that,” the manager said in reference to the outs recorded in the second inning. “I mean, it was stressed, but he felt OK.”
Atlanta will be allowed to replace Morton on the World Series roster with another pitcher, but it has lost one of the pillars of its pitching staff, and someone with notable success against the Astros.
The normally dependable Morton was 14-6 with a 3.34 earned run average in the regular season for Atlanta, with a major league-high 33 starts. In 14 major league seasons, including two with the Astros, Morton has established himself as a clutch postseason pitcher and has done particularly well against his former team.
Before Tuesday’s game, Morton had a 3-0 record in the postseason against the Astros, with a microscopic E.R.A. of 0.57. Two of those wins came in 2020, when he was pitching for the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Championship Series.
This year he started Games 1 and 4 of a division series against Milwaukee and Game 3 of the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Tuesday was his 16th postseason start.
Morton has also been a strong influence on his teammates, and most likely will continue to provide support and advice to his fellow pitchers for the rest of the series. Max Fried, Atlanta’s Game 2 starter, called Morton a calming influence during a news conference on Tuesday before Game 1.
“Especially when you go into really emotional games, especially when it comes to playoff games,” Fried said, “to be able to look to him in these circumstances is really, really helpful.”
Morton pitched for Houston in 2017 and 2018, and won Game 7 of the 2017 World Series with four splendid innings in relief. He left a strong impression as a terrific teammate.
“The best you can ever have,” Altuve, Houston’s second baseman, said before the series began. “He’s that good. He’s amazing. I only have good things to say about him.”
Morton’s final pitching line of the 2021 season was two and a third innings in which he allowed one hit and no runs. He walked two and struck out three, but what will never be shown in the box score is whether he recorded his final three outs on a broken leg.
World Series 2021 – Braves’ Charlie Morton threw 16 pitches on a broken leg –
HOUSTON — Inside the training room of the visiting clubhouse at Minute Maid Park during Game 1 of the World Series, friends kept dropping by to apologize to Atlanta Braves pitcher Charlie Morton for his misfortune. His response to them, and to others who reached out and wished him well after a comebacker broke his leg, was the same: “I’m sorry.”
The guy who wore a 102-mph shot off his right fibula in the second inning was sorry. The guy who worked through the pain to face three more batters — and retire all of them — was sorry. The guy who pushed himself so far that his leg quite literally gave out under the stress of his effort was sorry.
“And if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about Charlie Morton,” Atlanta star Freddie Freeman said, “I’m not sure what does.”
Pain, it’s important to understand, always has been part of Morton’s baseball experience. It’s not something he’d ever wish on anyone else — Morton is legendarily earnest, as his apologies illustrate — but he’s here now, still playing baseball at 37 years old, because of what he learned in the first half of his career, when all he seemed to know was what it felt like for his body to betray him. There were injuries big and little, prime years lost and talent stolen, and eventually Morton started to understand that his job entails coming to terms with a barbaric reality: Throwing a baseball for a living necessitates embracing the hurt.
Still, what Morton did Tuesday night went beyond pain tolerance. The tone he set in Atlanta’s 6-2 victory over the Houston Astros was abundantly clear. He wanted to win a championship so badly that he’d pitch until his body no longer let him. He wanted to do it against the team with whom he won a ring in 2017 and for the team to which he returned this year after nearly a decade and a half away.
“He was doing exactly what we hired him to do,” Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said. “Bring credibility. He did it all year. He did it tonight. And I hate it for him. He really is the kind of guy that would break his leg and say he’s sorry.”
Atlanta signed Morton to a one-year, $15 million deal last November because his wizened arm could still whip 97 mph fastballs and feather 80 mph curveballs, sure. But more than that, it was for the same reason he was so beloved in the Tampa Bay Rays’ and Astros’ clubhouses before Atlanta’s: Having Morton around is an exercise in joy and amusement, in seeing someone who bursts with good vibes except for when he’s being self-deprecating.
“He goes eight innings, gives up one run and is like, ‘I’m sorry, guys,'” Atlanta catcher Travis d’Arnaud said. “He genuinely, sincerely feels like he shouldn’t have given up a run.”
“Everyone knows his résumé, and his humility is something you wouldn’t expect from someone with that kind of résumé. He’s just so genuine all the time, very open with anything he’s thinking to anybody. Doesn’t matter if you’ve never played a day in your life or you’ve got 20 years in the big leagues.”
This is the reason so many teammates dropped by the training room Tuesday night. Morton is beloved. He was when he arrived in Atlanta as a 24-year-old after spending seven years in the minors, and he was when Tommy John surgery and hip surgery and shoulder injuries derailed his career, and he is now that’s he has finally stayed healthy for a few years in a row — culminating this season, in which he tied for the National League lead with 33 starts and was characteristically dominant in most.
0:40
Braves starter Charlie Morton takes a comebacker to his right leg in the second inning and is forced from the game an inning later.
At first, Morton didn’t look particularly wounded by the 96 mph fastball that Yuli Gurriel, the American League batting champion, ricocheted off Morton, bouncing to Freeman for an easy out. Morton acted like it was nothing. He struck out Chas McCormick on four pitches. He threw six more to Martin Maldonado, occasionally grimacing but perhaps no more than in an average Charlie Morton start, during which his faces are regularly amusing.
Between innings, an X-ray machine in the stadium snapped an image of Morton’s leg, and the diagnosis was: no break. It hurt, but his shoulder and elbow and hip hurt once upon a time, too, and he pushed himself through those. This was the World Series. Even though Atlanta thinks so much of Morton it already signed him to a $20 million extension for 2022, nobody can predict what’s to come. Maybe this was his best chance at a title. Discomfort wasn’t going to stop him from returning.
So back he came for the third inning, when he threw six pitches and caught Altuve staring at a curveball for the second time, only after this one he pirouetted away, a grimace creasing his face, and avoided landing on a ginger leg that 30 minutes, 39 seconds earlier had been ambushed by Gurriel’s batted ball.
“It’s incredible that he even thought of going out there, and I bet you it was so A.J. could have some more time to get ready,” d’Arnaud said of A.J. Minter, the reliever who spelled Morton with a season-high 2⅔ innings. “He sacrificed himself.”
There is something about this Braves team and how it responds to injuries. In the middle of the year, it lost Ronald Acuña Jr., one of the best players in baseball, to a torn ACL — and got better. Tuesday, relievers needed to get the final 20 outs against a devastating Astros lineup. It worked in Game 1. With Morton out for the rest of the World Series (a second X-ray, after the third inning, revealed the fibula fracture), the prospect of multiple bullpen games going forward makes the path even more difficult.
That’s why Morton was sorry. Not for anything he actively did, of course, but because Gurriel’s bat happened to hit his pitch at a negative-6-degree angle and the cut of the grass and swing of his leg conspired such that the latter ended up in a boot. He was sorry that he went only 2⅓ innings, because he expected more than that.
There was no bloody sock to memorialize Game 1, nothing tangible beyond Morton becoming quite literally a Sorry Charlie. In the end, there’s just the hope that the guy who kept pitching until his leg broke will have a gold-and-diamond ring to show for it.
Atlanta Braves’ Charlie Morton fractures fibula in Game 1 of World Series against Houston Astros
HOUSTON — Charlie Morton’s season ended in the third inning of the 2021 World Series.
X-rays revealed that Morton, the Atlanta Braves’ veteran starting pitcher, suffered a fractured right fibula early in Game 1 on Tuesday night, seemingly after getting hit by a 102.4 mph comebacker off the bat of Houston Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel to begin the bottom of the second.
Morton, 37, retired the next two batters, then came back to strike out Jose Altuve to begin the bottom of the third before exiting. Morton noticeably grimaced while delivering the last pitch to Altuve — a sweeping curveball dotted at the bottom of the strike zone — and promptly hobbled out of the game after getting checked on by an athletic trainer.
Morton’s injury prompted Braves manager to turn to late-game reliever A.J. Minter a lot earlier than he would have anticipated and is a serious blow for the Braves, who entered the World Series with a three-man rotation that also included Max Fried and Ian Anderson. The Braves were already planning a bullpen game in Game 4 and will need another one in Game 5 unless Fried comes back on short rest.
Morton, signed through at least the 2022 season, went 14-6 with a 3.34 ERA in 185⅔ innings during the 2021 regular season. He was appearing in his third World Series — for his third different team — in a five-year span. The Braves said he will be ready for spring training.
Atlanta will be able to replace him on the roster before Wednesday’s Game 2.
Braves will start Charlie Morton in Game 4
Not a big surprise, but the Atlanta Braves have announced that Charlie Morton will go on short rest and start Game 4 of the NLCS Tuesday evening.
Morton started Game 1 on Friday and was lights out for six innings before allowing a two-run home run to Rowdy Tellez in the seventh. Those are still the only runs that the Brewers have managed to score in the series. Morton’s line was still impressive, six-plus innings while allowing three hits, two runs to go along with nine strikeouts.
Morton hasn’t made a start on short rest since his rookie season in 2008 but did toss four innings in relief on three days rest in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series. It is unclear on how many innings the Braves can expect to get out of Morton but they will have plenty of options to cover the middle innings.
The Brewers will go with left-hander Eric Lauer as their starter for Game 4.
Eric Lauer will start today for the Brewers, per club.
— Will Sammon (@WillSammon) October 12, 2021
Lauer has yet to pitch in the series but faced Atlanta back on May 14 where he allowed four hits and three runs in just three innings. With Milwaukee facing elimination, expect Lauer’s leash to be short.
Braves Extend Charlie Morton – MLB Trade Rumors
The Braves announced Monday that they’ve signed right-hander Charlie Morton to a one-year contract worth $20MM. (The Braves are one of the few teams who formally disclose the terms of their player contracts themselves.) The Jet Sports client also has a $20MM club option for the 2023 season that does not have a buyout.
Morton had somewhat of a slow start in his return to the Braves organization, pitching to a 5.08 ERA through his first eight starts of the season. He’s been lights-out ever since, however, working to a combined 2.95 ERA with a terrific 29.9 percent strikeout rate and a strong 7.4 percent walk rate over his past 20 starts — a total of 119 innings pitched. Overall, Morton has a 3.47 ERA in 158 frames with the Braves thus far in 2021.
This is the second go-around in Atlanta for Morton, whom the Braves selected with their third-round pick nearly two decades ago in 2002. He made his big league debut as a Brave in 2008 but was traded to the Pirates in the June 2009 swap that brought outfielder Nate McLouth to Atlanta. Morton would settle in as a mid-rotation starter in Pittsburgh, but a velocity spike in a very brief four-game stint with the Phillies — he missed the rest of the year with a torn hamstring — set the stage for him to land in Houston. With the Astros, Morton maintained that velocity bump and leaned more heavily into his four-seamer and curveball, at the expense of his sinker.
Morton broke out as one of the game’s best starters with the Astros, parlaying a brilliant two-year stint there into a two-year, $30MM contract with the Rays. He’d finish third in American League Cy Young voting and play a major role in the Rays’ postseason bid that year before some arm trouble brought about a slow start in 2020. Morton righted the ship in the season’s final couple weeks, however, and looked to be back to his dominant ways for much of the Rays’ 2020 run to the World Series.
Morton was a coveted free agent this offseason but had a small selection of teams he was willing to consider. Playing with the Rays afforded him the opportunity to live in his Bradenton, Fla. home, and Morton was reportedly very intent on remaining in the southeast to be near his family. His one-year deal with the Braves underscored that preference, as does today’s decision to forgo the open market entirely in favor of another one-year pact in a setting where he’s obviously quite comfortable.
With this deal in place, the Braves have now extended a pair of veterans in advance of free agency. Catcher Travis d’Arnaud inked a two-year, $16MM contract a couple weeks back, giving the club some stability behind the dish (as well as a potential bridge to William Contreras and/or Shea Langeliers).
Having Morton and d’Arnaud locked up for 2022 gives the Braves a total of $77MM committed to six players next season, although the status of Marcell Ozuna and his $16MM salary remain to be determined. The Braves also have option buyouts to pay to Joc Pederson, Adam Duvall, Josh Tomlin and the already-released Ender Inciarte.
The Braves opened the 2021 season with a payroll of $131MM, so there’s plenty of room for them to further add to that $77MM in guarantees this coming winter. Presumably, some of those funds are earmarked for what the team and its fanbase hope will be a long-term extension for franchise cornerstone Freddie Freeman. That they’ve been able to secure new deals with d’Arnaud and Morton shows the Braves are more than comfortable having these discussions not only in-season but in the midst of a playoff race, so perhaps they’ll yet aim to strike up a new deal with Freeman before he ever formally reaches the market.
For now, the certainty with Morton means they’ll be able to count on the return of a veteran who has blossomed into one of the game’s most steadily productive arms late in his career. Morton can be penciled into the 2022 rotation alongside lefty Max Fried, right-hander Ian Anderson and, hopefully, oft-injured righty Mike Soroka. Still just 24 years old, Soroka broke out as one of the game’s most talented young starters in 2019 but has only pitched 13 2/3 innings since that time after tearing his Achilles tendon on two occasions. Soroka isn’t expected to be ready for the beginning of the 2022 campaign, however, so it stands to reason that the Braves could look for some additional rotation help this winter even with Morton now locked into a return.