In what doesn’t seem like a great sign, Morales was the Athletics’ fifth pitcher of the game, coming into to start the fifth. Although he was far and away the most effective of the Athletics’ 10 pitchers to start at least five games last year, Morales doesn’t appear to be promised anything at this point, and he probably didn’t help the cause today with his fastball down one mph from last year and his secondary pitches down 2-4 mph.
