Pittsburgh (KDKA)- It’s not going to take long for rookie Jeff Locke to make his first ML start.

The Pirates plan on having Locke replace righty Charlie Morton in the rotation for this weekend’s series vs. the Florida Marlins.

Manager Clint Hurdle will skip Morton’s start on Saturday and replace him with Locke.

Hurdle says that he wants to give Morton a break and plans on returning him to the rotation on September 14th vs. St. Louis.

Morton hasn’t made it out of the sixth inning in any of his last three starts, allowing 12 earned runs.

The Pirates are hoping Locke can continue his run of good starts. In his last 5 outings, Locke is 1-2 with a 2.22 ERA. In 28 innings pitched, Locke has struck out 25 batters and walked 9 batters.