Detroit — There was really no other way to describe it.
“That was probably one of the weirdest outings of my career,” Tigers’ veteran right-hander Charlie Morton said after the Tigers were outslugged by the Los Angeles Angels, 7-4 Saturday before a crowd of 37,741 at Comerica Park.
It was weird like Jekyll and Hyde weird.
The same guy who struck out 10, including seven in a row at one point, was also tagged for six runs in 4.1 innings, including a three-run home run by Jo Adell and a two-run homer by Taylor Ward.
Both of those blasts came off hanging curveballs in two-strike counts and both put the Angels in the lead. And that same 3,280-rpm curveball that twice left the yard also generated 14 whiffs on 23 swings.
Feast or famine.
“I got a bunch of swing and miss, a bunch of strikeouts, I was in the zone a bunch, getting ahead early (19 of 22 first-pitch strikes),” Morton said. “Then you look back and like, man, I gave up six runs. It’s hard. I’ve been grinding to get back to myself and I finally do and get traded here and this team really needed a good start.
“And then I give up six runs. That’s why I’m so frustrated by this one and so upset about it.”
This was Morton’s second start for the Tigers and he dominated for three innings. He ended the third inning on a run of seven straight punch-outs.
“It’s hard to assess his outing,” manager AJ Hinch said. “He was really good. He did hang a couple of curveballs for multiple runs. So his line is not nearly good enough for the punch-outs. Weird game for him.”
Things flipped in what ended up a 31-pitch fourth inning. Morton set the table for Adell’s 400-foot blast by allowing a one-out single by Ward and then hitting Yoan Moncada in the foot.
Luis Rengifo followed with a triple, but Morton was able to strand him at third.
He was at 76 pitches and after the Tigers pushed two across in the bottom of the fourth to tie the score. Hinch sent Morton back out for the fifth.
“He was still getting a ton of miss,” Hinch said. “Obviously I went to see how he was doing and he was doing fine. He had plenty left in the tank. And he didn’t look tired.”
HIGHLIGHTS FROM ANGELS’ 7-4 VICTORY OVER THE TIGERS
Morton’s stuff was still crisp in the fifth. He gave up a soft, opposite-field single to Nolan Schanuel, struck out Mike Trout looking and got two strikes on Ward. But he left a 1-2 curveball in the middle of the plate and Ward broke the 4-4 tie with his 27th homer, a 399-footer to left-center, ending Morton’s night.
“Taylor Ward squared me up every time,” Morton said, referencing Ward’s three hits. “He was just putting some really good swings on the ball.”
If there was anything he would change, other than the location of that last curveball, was attacking more aggressively at the top of the zone and changing the eye level of the Angels’ hitters more often.
“I just think in a lot of those at-bats, I feel like I let them look down,” Morton said. “There wasn’t a lot of four-seamers at the top or up and above. I didn’t really establish any of that. I go back and look at that in my mind and pretty much every hit I gave up in those (two-strike) counts, I don’t think I elevated multiple times in those at-bats.
“Maybe it’s easier for them to get to the curveball if I’m not elevating and they don’t have to guard against the elevated heater.”
Morton will certainly allow himself to take the positives from this as he builds toward his next start. But right after the game, he wasn’t letting go of those two hangers.
“I’m critical because I’m new to this team and because of the position this team is in,” he said. “If it’s just the middle of the season and I didn’t start out the year with a 12 ERA and it’s just a bad outing in early August, I can look at those 10 strikeouts and all the swing and miss.
“But it’s hit, hit a batter, homer; then hit, homer, and before you know it you have crooked numbers in multiple innings. The guys battled back, tied it up and I go out in the fifth and base hit-homer and that’s the night.”
The Tigers did steady damage against Angels lefty Yusei Kikuchi, too. But all the scoring stopped after they went to their bullpen in the fifth. Javier Báez produced his seventh, three-hit game of the season and Wenceel Perez had two hits, including a hustle triple on a liner into the left field corner.
But on the pitch before the triple, Perez fouled a ball hard off his right foot. He stayed in the game until the fifth but the bruise tightened up on him. He had tests done after the game that came back negative.
“After I hit the triple and when I came back to the dugout, it was getting worse, the pain,” Perez said. “It was swollen. The tests were all good. It just hurts. It’s a bruise. But it’s all OK.”
The loss trims the Tigers’ lead in the Central Division to five games.
“It is what it is,” Hinch said. “It’s what a baseball season is all about. We’ve had a lot of these situations throughout the season. You have to be careful you don’t allow recent memory to creep into your mindset. We have a great opportunity to win a series and end this homestand on a winning note.
“We’ll come ready to play tomorrow.”
@cmccosky