Morton shuts down Tigers for seventh win

DETROIT -- Signing Charlie Morton to a team-record two-year, $30 million deal was the biggest acquisition of the offseason for the Rays. And through 13 starts, Morton has been worth every penny.

With the team entering Wednesday’s game with a four-game losing streak, Rays manager Kevin Cash said before the game that it would “be huge” to get another solid start out of Morton. The right-hander said that while he has had success so far this season, his focus was on getting deeper into games in order to give the team the best chance to win.

Check and check.

On Wednesday, Morton continued his dominant start to the season with one of his best performances of the year, helping the Rays get a much-needed 4-0 win over the Tigers at Comerica Park. Morton struck out eight and allowed just five hits over seven scoreless innings, tying his longest outing with Tampa Bay.

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“He was outstanding,” Cash said. “Breaking ball was good, spotted some fastballs throughout the game that really helped complement the breaking ball and [he] just did a good job of limiting damage.”

But perhaps more important is the fact that Morton was efficient with his pitch count and did not walk a hitter for the second consecutive game, which has been a point of emphasis for him. It took Morton, who improved to 7-0 and lowered his season ERA to 2.30, just 83 pitches to get through seven frames.

“I was pleased with the efficiency,” Morton said. “I thought the guys made some good plays behind me and [Mike Zunino] called a great game.”

The only sign of trouble for Morton on Wednesday came when the Tigers had runners on second and third with two outs in the fourth. The 35-year-old, however, was able to shut the door, striking out catcher John Hicks on a 95 mph four-seam fastball.

Detroit spent some time preparing to face Morton by facing a curveball machine over the last couple of days, but that didn’t faze the veteran, who recorded 16 swings and misses, 10 of them coming on his signature curveball, which he threw 28 times on Wednesday.

“He didn’t make too many mistakes in the middle of the plate,” said Hicks. “And then that curveball looked like it just kept going. It had a little more break than we expected.”

Morton’s stellar outing snapped an uncharacteristic streak for Rays starters this season. Over the last three games, Yonny Chirinos, Ryan Yarbrough and Blake Snell struggled in their outings, with the three starters allowing a combined 17 earned runs over 16 2/3 innings pitched. While it’s still June, and Morton says he doesn’t put added emphasis on any particular start, seeing the pitching get back on track was a welcomed sight for Tampa Bay.

“I know when the team needs a quality start from me, I know that,” Morton said. “Because the losses start to snowball from there and sometimes there’s a mentality shift. But like I’ve said before, I think we do a really good job of knowing that we’re a good team.”

While Morton cruised through the Tigers' lineup, the Rays’ bats provided him with a little bit of wiggle room. Austin Meadows continued his torrid start to the season by connecting on a triple in the third inning, and he ended up scoring on a Detroit error on the play. In the fifth inning, Avisail Garcia hit an RBI double and Ji-Man Choi followed with an RBI single to push the lead to 3-0.

“I think the offense did a good job,” Cash said. “We didn’t necessarily knock the cover off the ball, but we got timely hits and that was big ... It gave us a little breathing room.”

Seeing the offense get timely hits played a role in the Rays’ win, but the night belonged to Morton.

“I think when you talk about guys that have been around the league and sort of know themselves, those are the guys that you have that halt those skids,” said Zunino. “A perfect guy in a perfect spot for us today and he was able to give us a great outing.”