September 10th: Morris hit hard

Giants unable to sweep in 10-2 Loss
Mark Smoyer of The Splash recently wrote:

"On Sunday evening, the Giants played 19 players...But these various call-ups, some of whom were regulars for quite a while this season, couldn't do anything about Matt Morris. Felipe Alou could have, by taking him out a bunch of batters earlier, say before the Padres' pitcher, Woody Williams, had had a chance to get three hits off his counterpart."

This is another classic example of a writer who has not been watching the games. Morris has been very similar to Noah Lowry this season. He will have a bad inning early and then settle down for the rest of the game.

Felipe Alou said it himself and Smoyer himself even quoted this in his article. "This guy is a tremendous starter, and you just don't pull a Matt Morris when you're down 4-0. You expect him to right himself like he did last time, like he's done all year."

Everything evens out in the end and last night certainly proved that point. Ray Durham's double in the 2nd after gold glover Mike Cameron lost it in the sun was a gift, but the Giants were unable to capitalize. After a hit by Williams the pitcher the top of the 3rd, Dave Roberts cashed in on the sun's position himself, knocking a double over the outstretched arm of Finley.

San Diego however took advantage, following up with a Brian Giles single and a double by Todd Walker. So what normally would have been a quicker inning was in fact a blow out. With Morris' record, there is no reason why Felipe Alou had any reason to remove the starting pitcher at that point. This said, by one of his harshest critics.

Armando Benitez, please take a lesson from your teammate in how to take a loss. "Today just wasn't my day, and I'll take the blame," said Morris. "Woody beat me with his bat and beat me with his pitching. I'll tip my cap to him, even if I don't want to."

Now that's class.