Morris roughed up by former team
05/24/2006 2:31 AM ET
Morris roughed up by former team
Bonds notches RBI single; Winn smacks two-run homer
By Rich Draper / MLB.com
Matt Morris adjusts his cap after giving up a homer to Albert Pujols in the
first. (Eric Risberg/AP)
SAN FRANCISCO -- It was a classic showdown between two ex-teammates -- Giants
pitcher Matt Morris, a longtime St. Louis stalwart, and Redbirds strongman
Albert Pujols, a superstar in the making.
The duel was over quickly.
It would be the muscled Pujols breaking a 58 at-bat homerless streak here with
a three-run shot in the first inning, giving the Cardinals a lead they would
never relinquish in an 8-5 victory over the Giants at AT&T Park on Tuesday
night and tying the three-game series, 1-1.
Morris had spent eight years in a St. Louis uniform and had long, cherished
friendships with the athletes, and he admitted this was a decidedly different
pitching scenario, suddenly competing against -- not with -- his buddies.
Pujols, of course, has a Major League-leading 23 homers, and he only has eyes
for the baseball, with nary a thought of times gone by.
After Morris allowed singles to spunky leadoff hitter David Eckstein and then
Scott Spiezio, Pujols hammered the ninth pitch from the Giants right-hander
and sent it sailing deep into the left-field seats.
"I got myself in trouble right away," said Morris (3-5), who would last six
innings and give up four earned runs, pitching well overall save for the
initial savaging by Pujols. "Eckstein does what he does best, flip the ball
over the middle, and Spiezio grounds one into the hole.
"Then I get a 2-0 count on Pujols -- at that point it might have been smarter
to walk him," said Morris. "I don't want to have bases loaded with no outs in
the first."
The good news is the bases never were loaded, but Morris' third pitch to the
Cardinals slugger was, as manager Felipe Alou put it, "right into Pujols'
wheelhouse."
"He's obviously one of the best hitters in the game right now and you don't
want to be at a point where you have to challenge him," said Morris. "That's
what happened tonight. I was trying to be too fine, throw a fastball down and
away, and it wasn't as down and away as I'd like it.
"He did what he does best."
The Giants hardly were demoralized at that point, as they scored twice
themselves in the bottom half of the first, got a two-run homer by Randy Winn
in the fifth frame and loaded the bases in the ninth but managed only one
tally.
That early three-run margin proved too much.
Morris explained, yes, it was merely a loss -- and that all of them are
difficult -- but this one hurt a little more.
"I wish I could hold my head a little higher," he said. "It was different. It
was something I hadn't experienced before. I have a lot of friends over there
and I wanted to compete hard against them and get a win for our team.
"I respect the way they go about it," added Morris of his former mates. "They
played hard-nosed baseball, and that's why I wanted to win that much more.
They know what I'm thinking and I know what they're thinking. It would have
been nice to throw up some zeros."
Pujols also singled in the seventh off Giants rookie reliever Jeremy Accardo
and scored on Scott Rolen's base hit, while an unearned run scored in the
eighth on Jose Vizcaino's fielding error.
Giants catcher Mike Matheny, who drew a walk in the ninth to score Steve
Finley, said Morris rebounded well from the opening frame and seemed not to be
bothered by facing his ex-teammates.
"I didn't see him overexcited or try to do anything different," said Matheny.
"He made a couple of pitches that caught more plate than he wanted to get, and
they jumped all over him.
"But he did a good job of staying in there and made some good offspeed pitches
later in the game, but they got on a good roll early. But it was nice to see
our little push at the end."
Winn doubled to lead off the first inning and was driven in by Finley's triple
, his Major League-leading eighth of the season. Finley snapped a two-game
hitless streak with the rip into right-center.
Giants reliever Brian Wilson, recalled from Triple-A Fresno on Tuesday to
replace the injured Tim Worrell, made his AT&T Park debut by throwing two
scoreless innings.
Rich Draper is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the
approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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