Stlcardinals.com
March 21, 2001

Morris Gases Fish

By Derek Glanz

Cardinals starter Matt Morris pitched like a champ on Wednesday afternoon, striking out a team-best eight batters and giving up one run, seven hits and one walk in 5 1/3 innings.

Morris worked a lot of change-ups into his repertoire Wednesday, more than he's ever used, he reported.

In his side work since his March 16 start — a disappointing one in which he yielded four walks and six hits over three innings — Morris focused less on mechanical issues and more on approach and preparation.

"'Dunc' (pitching coach Dave Duncan) and I worked on rhythm in my bullpen session this time," said Morris. "We didn't emphasize mechanics as much as just having a good time out there, throwing the ball over the plate and keeping the ball down."

After Morris' promising start on March 11, the 26-year-old was excited and ready to take on the world again. "Dominate" had worked its way back into his vocabulary; the setback March 16 seemed to deflate him.

Patience and calm worked their way back into his game. In fact, the day off Tuesday seemed to soothe the temperament of many workers about the Cardinals clubhouse.

Morris is exercising patience with his curveball. His old overhand curve is now more of a slurve. Morris has not been able to find the release point for the old overhand (12-to-6) curve. He has looked to Darryl Kile for guidance.

"(Catcher Mike) Matheny's just got to watch out for whatever's coming," Morris says of his hybrid curve-slider. "Sometimes it comes from the side a little bit. Sometimes it breaks down. I'm just trying to get the feel of it. It was breaking sharp today — that's the important thing.

"There were no loops, which is key. I'm just working on the arm speed for now. Kile says you can start with the tight one and always get bigger. You can't take the big one and tighten it up. So I'm starting with the slider and once I can get the feel for snapping that off I can make that a bigger curve ball."

On the spring, Morris has pitched 13 1/3 innings and given up eight earned runs (5.40 ERA), 18 hits and six walks, while striking out 14.