Braves stifled by Charlie Morton, Orioles in series-opening loss

“He looked just like he did here the last few years,” manager Brian Snitker said of the 41-year-old pitcher. “You sit there, and I see him pumping 97 (mph) and still spinning the ball. And the 94’s were real effective. He looked the same to me.”

Braves’ starter Spencer Strider dueled Morton — his former teammate and good friend — but a pair of home runs from Baltimore’s Jordan Westburg and Cedric Mullins gave the Orioles a 3-0 lead by the sixth inning.

Two mistakes aside, Strider appeared closer to the caliber of pitcher he displayed before an internal brace surgery that kept him off a major league mound for about a year. Over his last five starts, Strider has posted a 2.70 ERA while leading MLB with 39 strikeouts.

Strider employed a heavy mix of fastballs and sliders against the Orioles — with 94% of his pitches falling in those two categories — and the former topped out at 98 mph. He struck out six batters and only walked one through six innings for his fifth quality start of the season.

“There’s good, there’s bad,” Strider said of his outing. “I don’t know that I would second guess any pitch decisions or selection. Even a lot of the hits were well-executed pitches that made sense. (The Orioles) had ... seemed like a good approach.”

In past seasons, wondering if the Braves’ offense could come back from a three-run deficit would be deemed laughable. But 2025 is the exception. Atlanta has scored only 18 runs over its last eight games — with seven of those coming in a single frame against the Angels — and was held scoreless in 62 of its 69 innings during that stretch.

Strider claimed the lack of run support does not create extra pressure for the pitchers to deliver near-perfect outings, but it’s fair to question the impact of the team’s laboring offense.

“In 2023 or whenever I’ve been on a team that just bangs offensively, I’ve never gone out and been like, ‘Well, I can just suck today,’” Strider said. “You never know what, whether the offense is clicking or not, it’s going to take to win the game. What I know will give us the best chance is pitching deep and limiting runs, so that’s kind of my goal. Every time I go out, it’s honestly not impacted by how the offense performs.”

The Braves will aim to even the series Saturday with a 4:10 p.m. first pitch. Snitker said the club will start reliever Aaron Bummer for a bullpen game, as it tries to fill injured pitchers Spencer Schwellenbach and Chris Sale’s spots in the rotation.