Today's Three Things: Braves Bash Charlie Morton to Take Series Opener

The Atlanta Braves successfully prevented Charlie Morton from getting himself a revenge game, knocking him from the game in the 2nd inning

The Atlanta Braves extended their winning streak to a season-high six games, taking dow the Detroit Tigers 10-1 in Comerica Park on Friday night.

Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

The top of the 2nd inning.

Having already pushed former Braves starter Charlie Morton with three runs in the first on 34 pitches (17 strikes), Atlanta closed in for the kill. Nacho Alvarez Jr. led off the inning with a single, scoring on a Matt Olson RBI double. Ronald Acuña Jr. then finished off Morton’s outing with a 0-2 home run to right-center, pushing Atlanta’s lead to six and prompting Tigers manager AJ Hinch to replace Morton with former Braves reliever Rafael Montero.

Atlanta had an opportunity to bring Morton back this offseason but declined, letting the 41-year-old leave in free agency. Based on the results of both Uncle Chuck and his replacement in the rotation, Bryce Elder, the Braves got this one right. Let me tell you why.

Today’s Player of the Game

Despite entering tonight’s game with the exact same ERA as Morton, Elder was significantly better tonight and earns our Player of the Game.

Elder went seven innings tonight with five hits and just one run allowed, that coming off of a solo shot given up to Spencer Torkelson in the fourth. There were some hard-hit balls, sure, with Elder averaging just over one hard-hit ball per inning, but he didn’t walk a single batter and struck out six.

It’s yet another quality start in a second half that’s been full of them for Elder. Since the start of August, Elder’s put up seven quality starts in ten chances. While we continue to believe that his highest and best use is as rotation depth, due to the fact that when he’s bad, he’s bad, the reality that he’s out of options may mean that he gets flipped this offseason to enhance another area of need on the roster.

What You’ll Be Talking About

Ha-Seong Kim.

The shortstop hit his second home run of his Braves tenure tonight, a two-run shot in the 8th that pushed Atlanta’s lead to seven runs. It’s the continuation of a September heater for Kim, who is carrying a .316/.375/.439 line in his sixteen games with the Braves.

Kim needs to decide on his 2026 player option by the fifth day after the World Series, and it feels increasingly likely that he (and his agent, Scott Boras) will enter the free agent market this winter, looking to beat the 1/$16M he would get on the option. With Bo Bichette having a terrible defensive season and a recurrence of his lower-body injuries from last year, it’s possible that Kim might even be seen as the main option on the market for some teams that value defense and health more than Bichette’s potent bat.

Looking for more discussion about this game?

Here’s tonight’s Postcast, with me and Locked On Braves host Jake Mastroianni, as we went live to break down the win.

What’s Next for the Braves?

After successfully holding off Charlie Morton’s revenge game, the Braves are hoping to get one of their own. Former Tigers starter Joey Wentz (5-6, 5.56), who was waived by Detroit last September, will be making his first start against the club at 1:10 PM ET on Saturday. Righty Keider Montero (5-3, 4.32) gets the ball opposite Wentz.