Stlcardinals.com
July 30, 2001

Morris' Road Struggles Continue

By Carrie Muskat (MLB.com)

CHICAGO -- Matt Morris lost his second straight game for the first time all season. He didn't pitch beyond the fourth inning for the third time. His ERA on the road is now 5.12 compared to a 1.52 mark at home.
St. Louis manager Tony La Russa isn't worried.

Morris (12-7) took the loss Sunday night in the Cardinals' 7-5 decision to the Chicago Cubs, which left St. Louis with a split of the four-game weekend series.

"He just couldn't get the ball down," La Russa said. "That happens once in a while."

"Everything was up," Morris said. "When I threw the ball down, I missed down so I wasn't real effective down. My breaking balls were up, fastballs up over the plate and they capitalized on that."

La Russa thought there might have been extra adrenaline flowing.

"I'm sure I did. It's just when you use it," Morris said. "The adrenaline was fine. But when I'm jumping off the rubber, that's something else. I just wasn't staying back today and left the ball up out over the plate. When you make those kind of pitches, they're easy to hit."

"(Too much adrenaline) is a much easier problem to fix," La Russa said. "It's the other guys who need to be prodded and kicked and challenged that I get concerned about."

The Cubs got to Morris early, scoring four runs in the second, including Robert Machado's two-run homer.

"I put the team in a big hole," Morris said. "(The Cardinals) battled back. And that's a positive. We still lost the game. I guess coming up here and taking two out of four is not what we wanted to do to gain ground but we showed a lot of fight this weekend and there's still a lot of season left.

"When you put the team in a hole in the first three innings, it's tough to battle out of it," he said. "Mentally, you're drained. These guys know they're going to have to start battling. They were able to but it was too big a hole."

Morris lost his battle with Matt Stairs, whose RBI single in the second preceded Machado's homer.

"It was an 0-2 hit by Stairs and I tried to lock it in right there before much damage was done," Morris said. "I made a good pitch away, I made a good curveball down and I tried to go in with a four-seamer. I think I got it in but it wasn't the ball I should've thrown to move him off the plate. He was able to get some wood on it."

Two runs scored -- one on Stairs' hit and another on a fielding error by right fielder Albert Pujols who overran the ball.

"That first pitch to Machado was up, middle. He was looking heater and he was geared in, too," Morris said. "If I make my pitch down and in, I might be able to get him. He beat me right there on a bad pitch."

Morris gave up six runs on seven hits and two walks over four innings, striking out one. It was only the third time in 22 starts that he has failed to pitch beyond the fifth.

He also had a little trouble with Cubs pitcher Julian Tavarez in the fourth. With one out, Tavarez hit a grounder to second and lazily jogged to first, the crowd booing his lackadaisical effort. Morris looked at Tavarez and Tavarez looked back and home plate umpire Ron Kulpla stepped in between the two.

Cubs manager Don Baylor and Sammy Sosa both came out of the dugout and guided Tavarez off the field.

Nothing was said, Morris said. Maybe he should have. Tavarez thought the Cardinals pitcher did mutter something.

"He said something to me and I shouldn't have let it bother me but I did," Tavarez said. "He was mumbling and looking at me. I think I overreacted. Maybe he didn't say anything bad but it's part of me. I'm an emotional guy. I don't like to lose out there but I shouldn't let it get to me."

"I was seeing where he was," Morris said, "because the ball was hit on the right side and I had to go over to cover it. Then I saw (second baseman Fernando) Vina make the play and I looked to see where (Tavarez) was. Whatever. I have nothing to say about that. It's not the way I'm trying to play the game."

Morris will focus on his next start. He can only hope it's at Busch Stadium. The right-hander now is 9-2 with a 1.52 ERA (13 earned runs in 77 innings) in 11 home games but is 3-5 in 11 road starts with a 5.12 ERA (37 earned runs over 65 innings).