stlcardinals.com
April 17, 2002

Morris Shows Ace Qualities

By Rich Draper

PHOENIX -- St. Louis right-hander Matt Morris, who earned Comeback Player of the Year honors a season ago, is now looking for bigger worlds to conquer.

As in a Cy Young Award. At this stage, you can't bet against him.

At 27 with only five years and a "Tommy John" surgery behind him, Morris is still learning the pitching craft, yet his rise to an elite status in the majors continues to be meteoric. On the heels of a spectacular 22-8 season in 2001, the pitcher is 4-0 with a 2.42 ERA this year -- and getting better.

In a classic gunslinging, desert showdown at Bank One Ballpark Wednesday, the relative youngster outdueled 35-year-old veteran Curt Schilling and cooled off the hot-hitting Arizona Diamondbacks with an 8-4 victory.

Morris, who is now tied with Randy Johnson for the Major League lead in victories, gave up a two-run homer to Luis Gonzalez and a solo shot to pinch-hitter David Dellucci, but Morris showed his mettle by shaking off early troubles and cruising to his sixth consecutive regular-season victory dating back to last September.

"He did so many good things to be the winning pitcher today," said St. Louis manager Tony La Russa. "He's doing it more and more. He's growing up real quick – he's doing stuff that Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling do. In that first inning, he could have been discouraged and blown it open. But he never got discouraged and never quit competing."

In what proved to be a fateful opening frame, Tony Womack, Danny Bautista and Gonzalez ripped singles to put Arizona on top, 1-0. Big trouble. The game, so very early, was already hanging in the balance.

But after two popups and a strikeout, the threat was over. Even Gonzo's two-run blast in the third never rattled Morris.

"I went into the game like it was the playoffs," said Morris. "I'm not as sharp as I was last year and Schilling's been dominating, so I kind of lost my head a little bit and tried real hard to throw a shutout. "I ended up giving up a run in the first -- that could be the ballgame. But once we got the lead I settled down."

The sweetest sight of all for Morris was watching teammate Jim Edmonds rip a first-pitch slider off Schilling with the bases loaded in the fifth inning for his fourth career grand slam and the game-clinching blow, saving the Cardinals from a Diamondbacks sweep.

Edmonds could tell Schilling was struggling and knew he likes to throw first pitches for strikes.

"I was just trying to hit the ball in the air and hit it on the barrel -- I got lucky," said Edmonds of his 199th career homer and his sixth this season. "I was trying to drive in one run not four. That was not the best Curt Schilling -- he didn't have his best stuff today. We were fortunate enough to put some runs on the board, so you've got to take advantages of the mistakes."