Charlie Morton's Debut

Up the road in Indianapolis tonight, Charlie Morton has made his first start for the Indians. I had no clue he was scheduled to pitch so soon after yesterday's trade for Nate McLouth. Well, Mr. Morton, as he will now be known, pitched 7 scoreless innings in the game. He allowed 2 singles, 2 doubles and 1 walk, while striking out 7. The game in still in progress (0-0 in the 8th) as I type this. Mr. Morton's performance tonight should be no surprise as he has been pitching quite well at the AAA level this year: before tonight, 2.52 ERA in 64 2/3 innings, with 16 walks and 55 strike outs. Mr. Morton also dominated AAA last year, but struggled horribly in the majors. I'm sure he'll be pitching for Pittsburgh before too long, and hopefully the extra AAA experience this year has helped make him into a pitcher more capable of success in the bigs. I get the feeling that if Ian Snell doesn't show marked improvement over his next start or two, he could be switching places with Mr. Morton. We shall see.