St. Louis Post-Dispatch
July 15, 2001

Morris Bails Redbirds Out of Their Slump

By Mike Eisenbath

Your team having trouble winning games? Struggling to score? Hoping to avoid a three-game sweep at the hands of an opponent that came to town 17 1/2 games out of first place, an opponent that usually looks like a slow possum on the road?

Who can possibly ride to the rescue?

His name was Matt Morris. A "real stallion," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.

"One thing about Matt Morris," Cardinals left fielder Ray Lankford said, "is you don't have to score a whole lot of runs for him. That takes some pressure off offensively."

The Cardinals can use all the pressure-relief possible. After losing the first two games of the series to the Tigers at Busch Stadium, they got 72/3 strong inning from Morris and three solo homers to win 3-2 Saturday afternoon before a sellout crowd of 47,176.

It was only the fourth victory in the Cardinals' last 14 games, but enabled them to pick up a game in the National League Central standings. They trail the first-place Cubs by eight games and second-place Houston by 5 1/2 (pending the Astros game Saturday night), with American League Central-leading Minnesota coming to town for the first of three games at Busch on Sunday.

"I believe in enjoying the moment," La Russa said. "We suffered enough the last two days that I'm going to enjoy dinner. We won a game. But nobody's saying we're rolling now."

Not when the Cardinals, who have at least half their offense still trying to fight out of slumps, went hitless in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position. The full extent of their production Saturday was a leadoff homer by Mark McGwire in the second inning, a solo homer by Ray Lankford two batters later and a one-out home run from Albert Pujols in the fourth inning.

All three home runs came off Tigers starter Jose Lima. Two made history.

McGwire's was his 10th of the season and No. 564 of his career. He had been tied with Hall-of-Famer Reggie Jackson for sixth on the career list. Pujols' homer was his 22nd of the season, most by a Cardinals rookie. He had shared the mark with Ray Jablonski, who hit 21 homers in 1953.

The Cardinals had only three hits other than the homers.

"We've just got to get our offense cranking," La Russa said.

After the Cardinals lost 3-1 Friday night, Lankford said the team had lost its offensive "mojo" - whatever that is.

"We haven't found it yet. It's still lost," Lankford said.

"When the offense is struggling," Morris said, "everybody is struggling. There are a lot more offensive guys than pitchers in the dugout. It sheds light on the whole attitude of the team. If you're not pitching good but you're hitting, it's not as big a deal."

He acknowledged the pitching staff might be thinking too much about the offense's struggles and thus pressing. Morris didn't concern himself with that much Saturday, though. He had lasted only 2 1/3 innings in his last start, July 6 at Cleveland.

Pitching one inning in Tuesday's All-Star Game gave him a chance to have some fun, clear his mind, find some perspective.

"We're trying not to give up runs instead of just pitching," Morris said.

So Saturday, he pitched.

"I told myself I was going to throw my breaking ball for strikes and throw it hard, get that going," he said. "Sometimes when I use my fastball, it becomes a physical thing. Today, (the Tigers) might have had the curveball in the back of their minds - maybe the front of their minds, too. If they're thinking about something other than the fastball, it's tough to catch up to it."

The Tigers couldn't catch up to much against him. He allowed five hits, none in the first 4 1/3 innings, and struck out 11.

With the Cardinals offense still scuffling, Morris and reliever Mike Timlin and Steve Kline had little room for a mistake.

"It's contagious," McGwire said. "When you have really good years, individually and as a team, it's always somebody picking up somebody. It just doesn't seem like guys are picking up each other. Someone doesn't get someone in or move them over. That's the way things have gone for us. ... But we got the win today, and in Matt Morris fashion."