PHILADELPHIA -- With the Braves¡¯ backs against the wall in the National League Division Series after Friday's 9-1 loss in Game 3 gave the Phillies a 2-1 series advantage, Charlie Morton will start Game 4 on Saturday afternoon in Philly, where he began the transformation that saved his career.

Braves rookie Spencer Strider -- whose Game 3 start unraveled in the third inning -- has faith in Morton as Atlanta sits on the brink of elimination.

¡°Yeah, it¡¯s very frustrating, but Charlie is going to go out and give us a chance tomorrow,¡± Strider said. ¡°Obviously, we need to have a good game, and [we¡¯re] confident that we will. And hopefully, [I can] get back out there [in the NL Championship Series] and do better.¡±

? Pitchers who have thrived in elimination games

History says Morton is the right man for the job, considering he has collected more wins in postseason elimination games than any pitcher in Major League history. He is 5-0 with a 0.73 ERA (two earned runs in 24 2/3 innings) in those games (four starts and one relief appearance). He would not be that type of pressure pitcher if not for a brief stint with the Phillies six years ago.

¡°I remember it specifically,¡± Braves pitching coach Rick Kranitz said.

Kranitz remembers because he was Philadelphia's bullpen coach in 2016, when Morton had a brief stint with the Phillies and embarked on the changes -- starting with a killer curveball -- that turned him into one of the most reliable starters just as technology was revolutionizing the way pitchers are built.

Then, Morton was a 32-year-old with a 4.54 ERA in 875 2/3 career innings who was picked up from the Pirates via trade in December 2015 in an offseason salary dump. Morton made four regular-season starts before blowing out his left hamstring on April 23 while running the bases, and he didn¡¯t emerge as Charlie Morton 2.0 -- with a 70-30 record and a 3.53 ERA since 2017 -- until he moved on to Houston, then Tampa Bay, then Atlanta.

? Postseason ticket information

¡°When he came in, his stuff was obviously undeniable,¡± said Kranitz, sitting in the Braves¡¯ dugout during the rain delay prior to Atlanta¡¯s 3-0 win in Game 2 on Wednesday. ¡°He was basically a sinker guy. He had just started throwing a cutter. And he always had a curveball.

¡°But basically, all he did was throw sinkers. One or one and a half times through the lineup, it was crazy. It was like, ¡®This guy is the best pitcher in baseball.¡¯ And then it was, ¡®Oh my gosh, what happened?¡¯ He was trying to be like [Roy] Halladay. [Morton¡¯s] delivery was a lot like him. They went through the whole thing, like, ¡®We¡¯re going to throw nothing but sinkers and pound the ball inside.¡¯¡±

The Phillies thought Morton needed more diversity and saw something in the curveball. Kranitz and pitching coach Bob McClure sat down with Morton after his first start of that season, and they suggested he throw it more often. Much more often.

Morton, to his credit, was open to the idea.

¡°I would say that was kind of the beginning of me becoming a curveball pitcher,¡± Morton said.

The project was just underway, with promising early results, when Morton was legging out a sacrifice bunt at Milwaukee¡¯s Miller Park and tore his left hamstring so severely that he required surgery. His Phillies tenure was essentially over. Philadelphia let him go via free agency the following fall and he signed with an Astros team that was at the forefront of using tech to transform pitchers. Morton further refined his arsenal to incorporate a high-spin, four-seam fastball.

¡°I regret that [my Phillies tenure was so short],¡± Morton said. ¡°They traded for me. I liked the group that was here. I liked the starters that I was with. I liked the clubhouse. I liked my teammates. It was kind of a cool place to be.

¡°And I really felt bad about that, because I think it would have been nice for me, as a little bit of an older guy at the time trying to figure out where I was in that role, because I never had been in that role before. It ended too quick.¡±

But over the years, the curveball became a weapon, just as Kranitz suspected. Morton¡¯s usage of the pitch ticked up steadily in ensuing years, topping out at a career-high 38 percent this season. He¡¯s in the 98th percentile in spin rate, according to Statcast.

This season, Morton had a 4.34 ERA in 172 innings. He gave up 28 home runs compared to 16 during the regular season last year in two fewer starts. Kranitz and Braves manager Brian Snitker both attribute much of the up and down to the fact Morton spent the offseason healing the broken leg suffered in Game 1 of last year¡¯s World Series against the Astros.

Remember that? Morton took a 102.4 mph comebacker off his right shin, fractured his fibula, and kept pitching. He faced three more Astros hitters and retired all of them.

But even in a 2022 that was not as excellent as the season before, Morton's curveball played. It was one of the 20 best in baseball this season by Statcast¡¯s run value statistic. In his first season with the Braves in '21, Morton¡¯s curveball was atop that leaderboard, just ahead of the Dodgers¡¯ Julio Ur¨ªas.

¡°He did not have a chance to work his legs at all,¡± Kranitz said. ¡°He literally came in not running. He was just throwing. For me, it¡¯s all in your legs. I think we¡¯ve seen some inconsistencies in that with some of his command, until he started working into shape. That¡¯s big. To me, the legs were everything.¡±

Eventually, Morton got going. He had a 3.96 ERA through his first start of August before allowing at least four earned runs in three of his final five regular-season starts. Now he¡¯s pitching another postseason elimination game. His last such start was Game 7 of the 2020 American League Championship Series, when his Rays beat the Astros. Morton¡¯s last such start on the road was the AL Wild Card Game in 2019, when the Rays beat the A¡¯s.

¡°I'm just amazed by Charlie all the time,¡± Snitker said. ¡°With all the innings he's logged, with everything he's been through and how that ball just keeps coming out of his hands just blows me away. It's always just like that ability to spin that curveball and the way the ball jumps out of his hand.

¡°I have so much respect for Major League players generally, but guys like Charlie that have done it a long time, the consistency of their work ethic, how they approach the game, I'm just continually in amazement of a Major League player. It's very impressive to me. I'm a big Charlie Morton fan.¡±