St. Louis Post-Dispatch
August 15, 2001

Morris Never Lets Up, Reds Never Catch On

By Mike Eisenbath

Matt Morris has felt "locked in" often in his pitching career. Never for a whole game, though. Never the way he was Tuesday night.

"I just did what Mike Matheny told me," Morris said.

Catcher Matheny laughed when he heard about that. "He's been hanging out with (pitcher Darryl) Kile too much, passing the praise to everybody else," Matheny said. "It didn't take much to call a game when a guy is throwing like Matt was tonight."

Morris allowed only four hits and Matheny hit a three-run homer as the Cardinals knocked off the Reds 7-1 at Busch Stadium and stretched their winning streak to six games.

Coupled with the Cubs' victory in Houston, the third-place Cardinals moved to only four games out of first -- behind Chicago -- and 3 1/2 games behind the second-place Astros. The Cardinals improved to eight games over .500 for the first time since June 4. The six-game winning streak is the their longest since May 7-17, when they had a 10-game winning streak.

"This year has pretty much been a streaky season for us," right fielder Craig Paquette said. "We had that 10-game streak early. Things are clicking now they way they were then. Hopefully, we can be more consistent."

Their pitching has been consistent since the All-Star break. The Cardinals have a 3.01 team earned-run average and have won 20 of those 32 games.

Morris (15-7) delivered the latest strong effort. He had posted an 8.15 ERA in his three previous starts but dominated for eight of his nine innings Tuesday. "He was so focused, relentless," manager Tony La Russa said. "That was really fun to watch."

The Reds managed only two balls hit out of the infield in the first seven innings, both fly outs. Adam Dunn beat out an infield single that Fernando Vina gloved behind second base with one out in the first inning. Morris allowed no other baserunners until sliding left fielder Eli Marrero just missed catching Jason LaRue's line-drive single in the eighth.

In between, Morris retired 22 consecutive batters. He is 11-2 with a 1.84 ERA in 13 home starts. But Tuesday's effort was better than usual.

Morris stressed it was a matter of trusting the pitches called by Matheny, a Gold Glove catcher who has the confidence of all his staff. But Matheny said Morris had all three of his pitches working well and had a good idea about what to do with them.

"It's all about location," Morris said. And run support.

Reds starter Dennys Reyes had been particularly effective against lefthanded batters while in the Cincinnati bullpen the first two months. Colorado's Larry Walker doubled off Reyes on April 27, the only hit he allowed by a big-league lefthander in 31 at-bats - until Tuesday.

The two lefties in the Cardinals starting lineup, Vina and Kerry Robinson, went hitless in their first two at-bats as Reyes retired the first nine batters he faced. But Vina led off the fourth inning with a single through the left side, and the Cardinals took off.

Placido Polanco followed with a single. The rally seemed on the verge of stalling when Mark McGwire struck out and catcher Jason La Rue completed the double play by throwing out Vina sliding into third base. B ut Albert Pujols drew a walk and Craig Paquette loaded the bases with an infield hit.

The hot Edgar Renteria lashed a two-run single up the middle. As difficult as this season has been for Renteria, he ranks among the NL leaders with a .342 batting average against lefthanded pitching. Matheny, who's hitting a mere .214 against lefthanders, whacked the fifth hit of the inning, a soaring three-run homer to left that gave the Cardinals a 5-0 lead.

"That (homer) was the last thing on my mind," Matheny said.

Pujols opened the sixth against reliever Chris Nichting with a single, giving him a season-high 15-game hitting streak. Paquette's 405-foot homer to center field pushed the lead to 7-0.

Morris lost his shutout in the ninth inning on two singles, a walk and a hit batsman. Still, he recorded his second complete game of the season and, suddenly, the Cardinals clubhouse has the August feel of a contender.

"I'm really fighting not getting caught up in all that," Matheny said. "I know that what we're doing right now is playing good baseball. It was a week and a half ago that people were saying that we didn't have a chance. That motivated some of us. I took offense to it, and I know a lot of other guys in here did.

"The important thing is we play good baseball."