Twelve games into the second half of the Carolina League’s season, only one Hillcat starting pitcher has claimed a victory: Matt McSwain on June 28 at Salem.
In six of those 12 games, the starting pitcher has taken the loss, a trend that continued Wednesday at City Stadium when Bryan Morris’ pitched three underwhelming innings against Wilmington in a 7-5 defeat.
For the second straight start, Morris, the No. 5 prospect in the Pirates’ organization, couldn’t get to the fifth inning. Against Salem last week, he was plagued by poor defense — all four of the runs he allowed were unearned. Wednesday, Morris got ahead of batters but couldn’t put any of them away. After striking out a season-high five in his previous start, he had no punchouts Wednesday and allowed seven hits and walked two in three innings.
“I don’t know if he wasn’t aggressive, but a lot of his pitches were just very hittable,” Hillcats pitching coach Wally Whitehurst said. “His fastball command was up. They put some good swings on it. He got ahead, but he just couldn’t put anybody away.”
Morris had been adept at keeping the ball down during his first five starts for the Hillcats, but he left several breaking balls at belt level Wednesday. Morris’ big mistake pitch, a two-on, two-out, 2-2 waist-high pitch to Wilmington’s Jamar Walton, gave the Blue Rocks their winning margin.
Walton, who had three home runs in 150 at-bats entering the game, crushed the pitch over the wall in right-center field, putting Wilmington ahead 6-1. It was the first home run Morris had allowed in 26 innings this season.
“In the third, he just threw so many pitches,” Whitehurst said. “I’m not concerned. Not right now. You’ve got a ways to go. When you’re 20 and 21 years old, things are going to happen. Guys just have a little bit more of a sense of urgency. They’ve got to learn to pitch. It’s a process, that’s all.”
The Hillcats, as they’ve done much of the year, put together a rally, pulling within 6-4 on Alex Presley’s two-run home run in the fifth and within 6-5 on Presley’s RBI infield single in the seventh. But Wilmington’s Juan Abreu, whose only two losses this year have come at City Stadium, worked a 1-2-3 ninth to put Lynchburg away.
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