Adam Morgan has solid outing, but Phillies fall

ATLANTA - Hours before Adam Morgan took the mound at Turner Field on Friday, Phillies interim general manager Scott Proefrock was discussing the most popular current topic of his young and developing starting pitching staff: monitoring the workloads of rookie pitchers.

The Phillies have four such pitchers, including Morgan, who is a little more than a year and a half removed from shoulder surgery.

"He's been in unchartered territory for a good while," Proefrock said of Morgan pitching deep into September in his first year back from surgery. "I think it's the same situation (as Aaron Nola). I think it's more of how they feel, and neither one of them has had stressful outings. (Pitching coach Bob McClure) talks about troubles, how many troubles they have during the game. That's more indicative than necessarily how many pitches they've thrown, it's more the stress."

Morgan, a native of Atlanta suburb Marietta, Ga., continued on that path later in the night. He faced more than four batters in an inning once and cruised through the Braves batting order by pounding the strike zone with little fear of contact.

Morgan gave the Phillies six strong innings, but his offensive teammates offered little support as Atlanta eked out a 2-1 victory.

The loss gave the Phillies (56-92) a two-game lead over the Braves (58-90) for the worst record in baseball - and thus, position to land the No.1 overall pick in the 2016 draft - with 16 days left in the 2015 season. It was also the Phillies 18th defeat in their last 24 games.

The 25-year-old Morgan, however, has given the Phillies every reason to believe they'll have a competent lefthanded complement to the righthanded Nola in their 2016 rotation.

After giving up a total of 10 runs in his last two starts - first in the unfriendly environment of Fenway Park and then against a potent Cubs lineup - Morgan bounced back in his home state. He held Atlanta to single runs in the first and fourth innings, gave up a total of six hits in six innings, struck out three and walked no one.

Blog: ph.ly/HighCheese