stlcardinals.com
May 8, 2002

Morris Mows Down Cubs at Wrigley

By Amy Sternig

CHICAGO -- Take away the first inning, and Cardinals starter Matt Morris absolutely dominated the Cubs Wednesday.

From the second through the eighth, Morris struck out 10 and allowed only one hit. He faced no more than four batters in any inning through the seventh.

It was a shaky start, however, as Morris allowed a lead-off single to Corey Patterson past a diving Jim Edmonds. After inducing Delino DeShields to pop out to the foul side of third, he faced Sammy Sosa and allowed a two-run homer to leave the park via the left-field wall.

Morris watched it leave the bat, turned and put his head down as Sosa ran the bases.

Then, he settled down. And from that point on, it was smooth-sailing for the 27-year-old hurler.

Morris said almost all of his outings this season have featured a problematic start.

"That's been my problem with all my starts, the first inning I go out there with a lot of adrenaline flowing and don't make my pitches," Morris said. "Physically I am great, but mentally I can't do the right things to execute. After the home run kind of woke me up, and Moises Alou hit the ball down the right field line, I didn't want the crowd to start getting into it. You have to lock it in and make pitches. The team really needed me today."

He also contributed at the plate in the fourth. His first attempt at a sacrifice bunt found him hitting the deck as a Juan Cruz pitch headed right for his face. Unscathed and unfazed, he squared again, connecting for the bunt and moving runners to second and third.

Morris threw 126 pitches in his eight innings -- the most since his Tommy John surgery in 1999. He said his arm felt fine, but he was looking forward to giving it some rest.

While Morris is now one of the league's big-name pitchers, his record at Wrigley Field has been average, if that. In seven starts at Wrigley over his career, he's just 2-2 with a 6.00 ERA. In his five starts against the Cubs last year, he went 3-1 with a 4.40 ERA.

 

Redbirds manager Tony La Russa said he was pleased Morris got the win, but he knew there was extra pressure on his ace Wednesday with a three-game losing streak on the line.

"One of the problems when you're struggling is that that puts a lot extra on the day Matt Morris pitches," La Russa said. "Guys get excited when they come to the park thinking they have a good chance to win. We need a win bad and Matt's the guy."

And the team has good reason to believe it will be successful with Morris on the mound. For the year, the big right-hander is 5-2 with a 2.95 ERA. After a rough stretch in late April, he has been brilliant in May, with a 1.13 ERA in 16 innings over two starts.

La Russa was impressed with Morris' effort against the Cubs.

"He struck [Robert] Machado out with a 3-2 curveball [in the seventh]," La Russa said. "At that point, he had more command of his curveball than he did of his fastball. That's one reason he was so effective the last seven innings he pitched because they couldn't get on either pitch. He and [catcher] Mike [DiFelice] really mixed it up well."

DiFelice gave all the credit to Morris.

"So far this year, you'd have to rank it up there as pretty good," DiFelice said. "Just for the simple fact that we lost three games and Wrigley is always a tough place to pitch. For him to come out and give up a one-run lead, he could have fallen apart right there. But he bore down and cruised through seven innings. It was definitely a big start to come out of here into the off-day with a win."

La Russa said Morris composing himself showed he has earned his status as a big-league pitcher.

"He's a complete pitcher, fastball up and down, in and out," La Russa said. "He's got a breaking ball and he's got a changeup he's going to use more and more. Other than anything, he's got a great heart. And he's strong, he was throwing 90 mph in the eighth inning."

Morris said he tried to establish his sinker early, but the hitters were adjusting to the speed, so he went to his curveball just to throw them off. He agreed with the manager that he may have had better control of his curve than his fastball late in the game.

DiFelice said Morris had everything come together by the second inning.

"He settled down and kept the ball down and used his sinker -- and his curveball was just outstanding," DiFelice said. "He threw it for strikes, he threw it for strikeouts. When you have those two pitches working, good things are going to happen."

Cubs skipper Don Baylor said the combination of pitches is what makes Morris so hard to face.

"He's always been pretty tough on this club since I've been here," Baylor said. "In hitting counts, you're looking for a fastball and he changes speeds. He's a very intense pitcher out there. He held us to four hits. We held their team to four hits but that one run, we could not get that one extra run across the plate."

Sosa -- who had never before homered off of Morris -- was impressed by what he saw.

"He's a quality pitcher," Sosa said. "He's a respected pitcher. It's a challenge. He went out there and after the first mistake, he got me in the second at-bat and after that he was careful. He was on top of his game."

The Cardinals bullpen is always happy to see Morris pitch. They know he'll go deep into the game and give their sometimes overworked department a rest. The relievers like to watch Morris just like the fans do sometimes.

"We sit there sometimes, the way he's throwing, we all look at each other and go 'Wow, I can't believe he just did that,'" said Mike Timlin.