St. Louis Post-Dispatch
October 10, 2002

Morris Says "Nerves" Got to Him

By Rick Hummel

Cardinals Game 1 starter Matt Morris had his first sub-par postseason game in three seasons in Wednesday night's 9-6 loss to the San Francisco Giants.

In seven previous postseason appearances, three of them starts, the Cardinals' ace had given up just five earned runs in 27 2/3 innings for an earned-run average of 1.81. It took him little more than an hour to allow that many runs and more on Wednesday.

Morris normally is keyed up at the start of a game and, try as he might to control it, he was unable to. He never really got in synch, lasting just 4 1/3 innings, allowing seven runs and walking four, three of them in the first inning.

"Nerves," said Morris. But he added, "I don't think adrenaline is a bad thing. Every pitch that was hit was on a ball up over the plate. This is playoff time. Those pitches are going to be hit.

"I don't think anything was on tonight. We couldn't dig out of the hole I put us in. If I put up a halfway decent game, we win that."

Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan said Morris "has got to learn" to channel his energy at the start of a game. The pitching coach added, "He didn't make the pitches he was trying to make and some of the pitches he shouldn't have been trying to make."

In a 26-pitch first inning, Morris threw 18 that were called balls as the Giants scored one run.

The Giants made it 5-0 in the second, the entire rally starting from nothing with two outs after Morris had struck out David Bell and pitcher Kirk Rueter and had two strikes on Kenny Lofton. But Lofton singled, stole second and scored on a single by Rich Aurilia, who singled through a hole vacated by second baseman Fernando Vina, who had broken for a possible play on Lofton at second. "Missed timing," said Morris. "It was probably better for me to step off. I ended up blowing the inning."

Jeff Kent fisted a single to left center and now the Cardinals had not much room for Barry Bonds, whom they had dispatched with a four-pitch walk in the first inning.

Bonds tripled out of the reach of center fielder Jim Edmonds for two runs. "I hung him a curveball," said Morris. "That's a pitch he should be hitting."

Benito Santiago, whose infield single scored the run in the first, singled to right to wrap up a four-run inning. Six straight Giants hit safely in the inning after two were out.

"Six hits in a row. That's pathetic," said Morris. "Every time we were able to muster something up, I gave it back. (Mike) Crudale gave some back. We're not going to win like that." With two out in the third, Morris again let down as Lofton, not prone to long-ball pyrotechnics, homered to right, pausing to watch it in flight.

The Giants pounded out nine hits in the first four innings. In the fifth, Morris speared Reggie Sanders' line drive in self-defense before Bell homered off the back wall in the Giants' bullpen in left center. That was it for Morris.

Lofton has hit 103 homers - not 603 - in 12 big-league seasons. When Lofton stopped to admire his third-inning solo homer, which didn't clear the wall by all that much, it was only a matter of time before somebody took umbrage.

The next time Lofton came to bat, in the fifth inning, Crudale threw an inside and high fastball. It was not nearly as high and tight as Lofton made it seem as he spun out of the batter's box and began yelling, first at Crudale and then at catcher Mike Matheny. Matheny blocked Lofton's path toward the mound if Lofton, indeed, had any interest in following that path.

But both benches and bullpens emptied and several minor conflagrations ensued. In one of those, Morris, out of the game, belatedly stormed from the dugout after Lofton before being held back. It was the final act of his frustration, although Morris insisted he didn't see whether Lofton stared at the home run in a slow home-run trot or not. He said he was more irritated at Lofton thinking Crudale was throwing at him. "The benches would have never cleared if he didn't make a big stink of it," said Morris. "Nobody's trying to hit him there."

Duncan was even stronger in his assessment of Lofton's act.

"It was hoopla about nothing because the pitch was barely inside," Duncan said. "The umpire can control that situation by (ejecting) Lofton.

"Lofton is the one who created an ugly situation. He was a classless act in more ways than one."