stlcardinals.com
September 26, 2002

Morris Sharp In Postseason Tuneup

By Jared Hoffman

ST. LOUIS -- After Thursday night's performance, there is little doubt that Cardinals right-hander Matt Morris is ready for baseball in October.

In a 9-1 victory over the Brewers on Thursday, Morris went seven innings and allowed just one run on six hits and a walk. It was his longest and easily his best outing since returning from the DL with a hamstring strain earlier this month. In his previous three starts coming into Tuesday, Morris was 1-2 with a 6.14 ERA.

Manager Tony La Russa had little doubt Morris was in for a great outing.

"He was going to have a good night because he's several starts into since he's been back and he's a stallion," said La Russa. "If we hadn't scored, he was gonna pitch a good game."

Morris is everything but officially the Cardinals' Game 1 starter in the National League Division Series. Even a poor outing Thursday would likely not have changed that, but everyone was all smiles after Morris came out of the game

"The last couple of games have been a little shaky," said Morris. "And I had a great bullpen session and sat down with Dunc (pitching coach Dave Duncan) and (bullpen coach Marty) Mason and went over what I needed to do and just tried to get back to basics."

Against the Brewers, Morris allowed a double to leadoff hitter Eric Young that hit off the base of the wall to straightaway center field. Young later scored on a sacrifice fly. The Brewers also got a leadoff double from Jeffrey Hammonds to start the second, but he was stranded. The rest of the Brewers' hits off Morris were singles.

Morris has been hit particularly hard in the first inning of games this season. Coming into Tuesday, Morris' opponents were hitting .379 against him in the opening frame. The right-hander believes that is a result of sometimes being his own worst enemy.

"I get into the game and the adrenaline is flowing and the competition is about to start and I end up just jumping a little bit and my ball comes up a little bit," said Morris. "(Tonight) I almost got worried a little bit out there because I couldn't get the ball down, but I was able to settle in. It was good for me to go out there today and make some pitches. Early on the ball was up."

Morris believes the energy he takes with him into each start could be a simple matter of right place, wrong time.

"It's not bad to be able to go out there and be hyped and have your adrenaline flowing but like DK (Darryl Kile) said, 'You have to know when to use it,' and I think I'm just using it too early."

So what was the biggest difference for Morris between Thursday's start and his previous three outings?

"It's almost time. That's what it is," said Morris. "I've got to lock it in now. I have no choice. Tonight, I was just concentrating and just not trying so hard. I think I've been really trying to extend myself to do better and I think that hurts me. I was able to make some pitches and get some outs. As long as I keep those last three or four innings under my belt, I'll be fine."

La Russa, who believes Morris had good stuff in his recent starts but was just a little off on location, didn't want to make too big of a deal out of Morris' performance.

"As long as you got human nature, you have some success, you have some confidence," said La Russa. "The more confidence you have, the more success."

The more success Morris has in the postseason, the better the Cardinals chances are of playing baseball late into October.