PHOENIX —
Brandon Morrow escaped last summer. He went up to the mountains with his family, away from the Arizona heat, and left baseball behind. The sport had been a source of frustration for two years. He focused on being a dad. He pretended he was retired. He wondered if it would end up being for real.
But by October, by the time another postseason rolled around, the itch to pitch returned. Abandoning the endless, mind-numbing, dispiriting rehabilitation was the reset he needed.
“Good for the mind, body and soul,” the 36-year-old right-hander said.