St. Louis Post-Dispatch
October 5, 2001

Morris' 22nd Win Pushes Cards Into Division Lead

By Rick Hummel

The last time a Cardinals pitcher won 22 or more games in a season, Richard Nixon was president.

Hall of Fame righthander Bob Gibson won 23 for the Cardinals in 1970. Matt Morris, who won three games last season, gained his 22nd by beating the Milwaukee Brewers 10-3 on Thursday.

To be mentioned in the same breath with Gibson, "is ridiculous, really," said a smiling Morris. "I'll be able to go up and talk to him now. I'm usually intimidated by him."

Morris (22-8) had struggled on the road, but not Thursday.

"Some of the doubts about going on the road . . . it makes me feel a lot better," said Morris, who had a 6-6 record and 5.50 earned-run average in away games before Thursday.

Morris ensured that the Cardinals will be playing somewhere next week as he pitched the Cardinals into at least a tie for the wild-card spot in the National League. He also moved the Cardinals into first place in the National League Central, a game ahead of Houston. The Astros have lost eight of their last nine games, including a 10-2 decision to San Francisco on Thursday night.

The Cardinals must beat Houston two games out of three this weekend to gain the division crown, which would be their second in succession.

Morris tied Arizona's Curt Schilling for the most wins in the major leagues at 22.

"Nobody's had a better year than he has," said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, when asked to compare Morris to Schilling and Arizona's Randy Johnson.

Morris fanned 10 Brewers. He struck out 13 Milwaukee hitters on Sept. 19. Morris gave up just three hits in six innings, throwing a fairly high 116 pitches, before yielding to relievers. Morris went 3-1 against the Brewers this season with a 1.88 ERA. He struck out 33 in 24 innings.

Mark McGwire cracked his 29th home run and 583rd of his career and drove in four runs for the Cardinals. Eli Marrero hit his sixth homer and drove in two.

Mike Matheny, with his first three-hit game since June 9, had three singles and twice came through after Edgar Renteria had been walked intentionally ahead of him.

Albert Pujols drove in his 130th run and Jim Edmonds knocked in his 107th and walked three times. J.D. Drew had even more passage, drawing four of the Brewers' season-high 11 walks.

"If we could keep the first baseman (McGwire) hot for a while, maybe they won't walk (Drew and Edmonds) so much," La Russa said.

The win was the Cardinals' seventh in eight games and 16th in 19 games. They are 49-22 over their last 71 games.

"The biggest key is pitching," McGwire said. "Offense is the headline in the paper today but pitching is going to get you to the playoffs, and pitching is going to get you to the World Series.

"When you take the field and we have the stars that we have, you feel so confident that (the starting pitchers) are going to give you seven innings strong. For so many years, you were just hoping you could get the starters through five or six innings.

"It takes a big toll off our bullpen and we've had such a great bullpen this year."

Morris, 6-1 in his career against the Brewers, pitched out of a spot in the second when the Brewers got a runner to third with one out. Pitching coach Dave Duncan thought Morris had struck out Luis Lopez with a 2-2 curveball. Duncan was dismissed by umpire Tim Tschida. Morris, who had been upset, too, proceeded to strike out Lopez and then strike out Jesse Levis, too.

"(Duncan) probably did that on my behalf," Morris said.

Duncan said, "I didn't want Matt to get in trouble out there."

Catcher Matheny said, "You know what? The umpire said that, too. He said, '(Duncan) probably saved you guys.'"

Morris said, "I got a little hot. . . . That was wrong. I get a little immature sometimes. Matheny cooled me down. He threatened me -- with his fists. He said, they need me to pitch this game and there's no sense getting angry over it. He yelled at me a couple of times and I finally agreed."

"Matt and I had a somewhat (heated) discussion on the bench," Matheny said.

"We needed for him not to let anything get him tossed. We needed for him to be better. And he didn't want to hear that, right then."

The Cardinals catcher had been called aside by La Russa before the game to try to keep a lid on the emotional Morris.

"My competitive fires were stoked to the max," Matheny said. "I said, 'Who's going to calm me down?' I was fired up all game."