stlcardinals.com
August 23, 2002

Hamstring Forces Morris From Mound

By Matthew Leach

ST. LOUIS -- Things had just been going too well in the Cardinals rotation, it seems. Chuck Finley is hitting his stride. Jason Simontacchi has returned to form. Matt Morris has looked like Matt Morris. Andy Benes seems to think it's 1991 again. And Luther Hackman has been a more-than-adequate band-aid in the fifth spot.

On top of all that, Woody Williams and Garrett Stephenson are on the way back within the week.

If the 2002 St. Louis season were a bad movie, this would have been just about the time that someone said, "Things are quiet. Too quiet."

And at that moment, something bad would indeed happen. Which it did, on Friday night. Morris strained his left hamstring while running out a ground ball in the sixth inning of the Cardinals' 5-4, 14-inning loss to the Phillies. He had not been at his best, giving up three runs on 11 hits in six innings pitched, while walking three and striking out three. But Morris is the Cardinals' leader in practically every major starting pitching category this year, and he ranks among the National League leaders in wins, ERA, innings pitched and strikeouts.

It's unclear how bad Morris' injury is, but it's quite clear that it's not good.

It appeared that Morris injured himself by stepping awkwardly on first base, but he said that he felt pain before he got to the bag. He said that he has never had an injury of this sort before, so he is unable to wager a guess as to how long he might be out.

"I just tweaked my hammy, I don't know," Morris said after the game. "We'll see tomorrow. It's a little sore. I can't pick the spot. So we'll see how it is tomorrow, if it's something minor. They can't see through my leg, so we just iced it and tried to get the swelling and bleeding to stop. I'm not making any guesses."

Cardinals trainer Barry Weinberg echoed Morris' uncertainty.

"You can't tell, initially, especially right after he comes out of the game," Weinberg said. "So you just ice it down, and then when he comes in [Friday], we'll see the severity of it. Right now, you consider it at minimum at least a moderate-to-significant left hamstring strain. So we'll see."

Morris had been the only constant in the St. Louis rotation this season. He has not missed a start all year. Now it looks like that will change.

"[As of] today, the next start's definitely in jeopardy," Weinberg said Friday night. "But we'll see tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll make that determination.

"We'll see how stiff he is, how sore he is, how much mobility he has, how it's localized, how the injury localizes to the exact location. [We can make a] much better judgment 24 hours later -- see the severity of it."

The 28-year-old right-hander is the second Cardinals starter to suffer a hamstring injury this year, joining Stephenson, but hardly the first among the pitchers to lose playing time to an injury. Williams is on the disabled list for the second time this year. Benes missed three months. Bud Smith spent time on the disabled list and in the minors before he was traded. Rick Ankiel pitched one game in Spring Training before he went on the DL. And, of course, those struggles all pale in comparison to the shocking death of Darryl Kile.

The Cardinals will miss Morris' ability, his durability and his competitiveness if he is out for any length of time. So, while their 5-4, 14-inning loss to the Phillies on Friday night was extremely difficult to take, it's the lesser of two setbacks when compared to the potential loss of their No. 1 starter.

"It was a tough loss," said manager Tony La Russa. "But everything's overshadowed by Matt's condition."