Braves’ Morton picks up win at home

Only once had the Braves provided any real run support for Charlie Morton at Turner Field, and then he trailed by such a big deficit that it hardly mattered.

On Thursday night, the rookie pitcher and his teammates finally came together and helped each other in a winning cause.

Morton pitched six strong innings, and Brian McCann hit a three-run homer in the fifth to lift the Braves to a 4-2 victory against the Florida Marlins and their first home series win in nearly two months.

Morton (4-8) allowed two runs and four hits in six innings, snapping a three-game losing skid and posting his first win in eight home starts this season.

“Charlie looked terrific,” said manager Bobby Cox, whose Braves recorded their first home series win since July 4-6 against Houston. “He threw a ton of strikes going into the sixth inning.”

The Braves had lost 13 of 16 home games before taking two of three from the Marlins, one of the few teams the Braves have fared well against during a dreadful 59-75 season. They are 9-6 against the Marlins.

“We want to play spoiler,” McCann said of his team’s intentions for the remaining 28 games, which include six apiece against National League East front-runners New York and Philadelphia.

They also play three next week at Florida after a three-game weekend series at Washington that starts tonight.

“We’re going to start playing better baseball from here on out,” said McCann, whose home run snapped a four-game power outage for the Braves, who have hit a major league-low nine homers in August.

Rebounding from his briefest start with one of his best performances, Morton retired the first 10 batters and faced the minimum 15 batters through five innings before giving up two runs, three doubles and two walks in the sixth.

“I was thinking that this was the first time I’ve pitched at home when we didn’t lose, except for the Houston game when I gave up six runs,” said Morton, who had been 0-6 with an 8.18 ERA in seven home starts before this one.

The Braves scored no runs while he was in five of those games, and one in another. They scored three runs behind him during a July 6 game against Houston, but Morton trailed 5-1 after 2 1/2 innings in the 17-inning Braves win.

His teammates provided offensive and defensive support Thursday. After Morton allowed two doubles and a walk to start the sixth, rookie left fielder Brandon Jones made a leaping catch against the wall to rob Hanley Ramirez of a big hit.

“I thought that was the difference in the game,” Cox said.

Morton said, “That was unbelievable. Brandon made a great catch.”

Luis Gonzalez followed with a run-scoring double to the right-field corner, but Jeff Francoeur and relay man Kelly Johnson made two perfect throws to prevent another run on the play, cutting down Paul Lo Duca at the plate.

Morton had been 1-6 in his past seven starts before Thursday, including 0-3 with a 10.24 ERA in his last three.

After allowing four runs and 10 baserunners in 1 1/3 innings of an 18-3 loss Friday at St. Louis, he spent hours this week working with pitching coach Roger McDowell on stepping directly toward the plate. McDowell used video of Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright, a former Braves prospect with a similar lanky frame, to demonstrate to Morton how to use his 6-foot-5 height to his advantage.

“The alignment issue I have was a little better today,” said Morton, who threw 50 strikes in 75 pitches.

The Marlins’ only hit through five was a fourth-inning single by Luis Gonzalez, who was erased in an inning-ending double play.

McCann homered with two on and one out in the fifth off Anibal Sanchez (2-3) to put the Braves ahead 4-0. Sanchez intentionally walked Chipper Jones with one out and first base open, after rookie Josh Anderson stole second.