Charlie Morton created his own 2-for-1 special on Monday night.
The veteran righty Morton was starting for the Atlanta Braves during their game against the Cincinnati Reds. During the second inning, Morton fired a curveball low and inside that struck Reds batter TJ Friedl in the right shin area. The errant baseball then ricocheted off Friedl’s shin, hit his left foot, and kicked up in the other direction.
Then in a twist of truly cosmic misfortune, the baseball made a beeline for Morton’s battery mate, catcher Sean Murphy, and struck Murphy right in (oof) the family jewels. Take a look at the hard-to-believe sequence.
Charlie Morton, Pinball(s)
3 balls and 3 strikes? pic.twitter.com/FIZ3U8rlN1
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 9, 2024
Friedl was at least wearing a shin guard over the initially impacted area, so it definitely looks like Murphy got the worst of it there. Though the pitch from Morton was only an 83-mph breaking ball, it only seemed to gain speed after it kicked off Friedl’s foot and struck Murphy in the … privates.
Murphy’s “Tom and Jerry”-like mishap aside, he was able to stay in the game and recovered enough to help Morton fire 6.2 innings of one-run ball (no pun intended). The Braves still lost 1-0 though and ended up bearing the brunt of the unluckiest catcher nut shot since this one from a few years ago.
