Morton, Lee, and other regulars get another tune-up in 5-2 win over Yankees

Another day, another late-March Spring Training game in the books. This time, the Braves hosted the Yankees in North Port and came away winners by a score of 5-2. Charlie Morton pitched five frames, Dylan Lee added a perfect inning, and a lineup full of regulars got some good hacks in.

Let’s start with Morton. In his last Spring Training outing, I was pseudo-lamenting his issues facing lefties, and well... there are still issues facing lefties. Overall, Morton’s outing featured five frames of 3/3 K/BB ratio ball, over which he was charged with two runs. That may not be what you want to see from Morton facing a lineup with few Yankees regulars, but it is what it is, and I don’t think he nor anyone else really cares about his results, anyway. Still, all three of his walks were issued to lefty batters, and only one of his three strikeouts came without the platoon advantage. (He also hit a righty batter.) Hits aren’t really on the pitcher, but all four Yankees hits while he was on the hill also came from lefty batters. Basically, the only righty to reach against him got plunked, and yet, the outing is what it was.

Morton worked around a two-out walk in the first and a leadoff single in the second with few issues, and then had a 1-2-3 third. In the fourth, a leadoff double and two walks loaded the bases with one out. Morton struck out Jahmai Jones, but then plunked former Braves farmhand Caleb Durbin to bring in the first run of the game. Greg Allen flew out, leaving the bases packed. In the fifth, Alex Verdugo knocked a leadoff single and then ended up on third when Sean Murphy’s throw on a stolen base attempt overshot its target. A single through a drawn-in infield brought Verdugo home, but Morton closed out the rest of the inning with no further complications.

Dylan Lee threw a perfect sixth with a strikeout and two flyouts. Jake McSteen and Jorge Juan completed the final three innings for Atlanta with just a single hit allowed, along with two strikeouts (and zero walks) against various Yankees depth guys.

Offensively, the lineup full of regulars was quiet against southpaw Nestor Cortes, notching just a Ronald Acuña Jr. walk and Ozzie Albies single through three innings. A leadoff walk and two singles (Austin Riley, Marcell Ozuna, Michael Harris II) brought home a run in the fourth, but Murphy hit into a double play to halt the rally. They got right back to mashing in the fourth — Orlando Arcia connected for his fourth homer of Spring Training, and then Jarred Kelenic hit an opposite-field triple and scored on an Acuña single to give the Braves a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. One-time Brave Dennis Santana then relieved Cortes and immediately walked Ozzie Albies, but then struck out Riley, Matt Olson, and Ozuna in order.

The Braves’ final two runs were scored by their own various depth guys. The seventh featured Bryson Horne hitting a two-out RBI double, and the eighth featured a silly Little League-esque run where Cody Milligan reached on a first baseman’s throwing error, got to third on another error on a stolen base attempt, and then scored on a fielder’s choice on a ball to the second baseman.

Tomorrow might actually be a rainout, but if it isn’t, the Braves are set to head over to Fort Myers to play the Twins.