St. Louis Post-Dispatch
June 15, 2002

Morris Turns Out the Lights on the Royals

By Stu Durando

The field at Busch Stadium was well illuminated by the setting sun when Matt Morris took the mound Friday night and allowed a single and a walk in the first inning.

And the stadium lights had yet to take effect when he surrendered a single to open the second.

But when dusk gave way to darkness, Morris' vampire persona emerged as his pitches gained more bite. He did not allow a hit after the second inning and finished with seven strikeouts in eight innings to lead the Cardinals to a 3-0 win over Kansas City.

Morris (9-4) continued his mastery of the night and lowered his earned-run average in night starts to 1.42. His ERA in his past five night outings is 0.71.

"I used to be a day pitcher," said Morris, who beat the Royals in Kansas City last weekend. "It's just hit or miss. I remember the first year I was good in the daytime and I was good at home. Now I'm decent at home. I just hope to be consistent at the end."

So there's nothing about pitching at night that works to his advantage?

"I just have them dim the lights a little bit," Morris said.

The Cardinals took the opener of the three-game series after winning two of three in Kansas City. They have outscored the Royals 28-12.

Morris made a loser of Kansas City starter Miguel Asencio (1-1), who was making his fifth career start and second against the Cardinals in the past week.

Since moving out of the bullpen last month, Asencio had posted a 2.59 ERA as a starter, allowing 14 hits in 24 1/3 innings and holding opponents to a .154 average.

The Cardinals didn't exactly knock Asencio around, but they made the most of their hits before he exited after five innings. In the second inning, Eli Marrero drilled his fifth home run, and the Cardinals strung together three soft hits in the fourth for two runs.

Marrero had the first of those hits and scored from second on a shallow single to right by Morris. Marrero also played a flawless center field in place of injured Jim Edmonds.

"You saw it tonight; he's got power and speed," manager Tony La Russa said of Marrero. "He's a special athlete."

The early offensive production was a welcome sight for a team that had been shut out in two of its previous three games in Seattle. The Cardinals had gone scoreless in 32 of the previous 36 innings with droughts of 19 and 11 innings.

They figured to get well against Kansas City, which had allowed 11 or more runs in four of its previous six games. Royals starting pitchers had an 8.18 ERA during their just-completed homestand.

Morris didn't need a lot of support. After Raul Ibanez singled to start the second, Morris retired the next 10 Royals. He allowed only three baserunners after that hit.

"He just kept us off balance," Kansas City's Mike Sweeney said. "He was kind of quick-pitching a little sometimes. The biggest difference between the last time and tonight was he was getting his curve over. He threw his curve behind in the count and threw it on 3-and-2 about five or six times."

Morris also said he relied heavily on his changeup for one of the few times this season. But he was just as happy to talk about his hitting, which produced an RBI-single in the fourth inning.

Marrero started the fourth-inning rally with the first of three consecutive looping singles into right field. Mike DeFelice followed with another bloop hit, and Morris helped himself by driving in Marrero with a single after showing bunt.

"My thumbs still hurt," Morris said. "I finally got a slug bunt in there. I was supposed to get that ball on the ground, but in this case it worked out. I didn't know if I even got the right sign, but it all worked out for me."

After Morris' single, Fernando Vina followed with a sacrifice fly to increase the lead to 3-0. Morris then settled down and gave the Royals little hope of mounting a comeback.

"They were hitting some balls hard early," Morris said. "But I think as I get more tired I get better because I focus on making pitches instead of trying to overpower people."

Asencio was effective in his previous start against the Cardinals despite walking five in seven innings. But he struggled with his control early on Friday, hitting Vina and Albert Pujols in the first inning and walking Morris in the second. Asencio survived his first-inning wildness with the help of a double play. He then stranded Morris by striking out Vina.

But he didn't survive the first at-bat by Marrero, whose line drive in the second inning slipped over the top of the left-field wall to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.

The Cardinals missed some late chances to extend the lead. Edgar Renteria doubled to open the sixth and moved to third on a fly out by Marrero, but neither DeFelice nor Morris could get him home. Then in the seventh, Kansas City reliever Mac Suzuki issued three consecutive walks with two outs before striking out Renteria to end the inning.

The Royals didn't make things remotely interesting until the ninth against Dave Veres.

Carlos Beltran started the inning by flying out to the warning track in right field. Sweeney then doubled, but Veres got Joe Randa to ground out and Ibanez to fly out to end the game.