Dodgers Get Mixed Message

Six games in 10 days against the St. Louis Cardinals might reveal much about the Dodgers and their October plans.

They learned a lot Friday night in facing Matt Morris, who pitched a two-hitter in a 3-0 victory in front of 37,524 at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinal ace overpowered the Dodgers and outdueled Jose Lima, mixing five sharp pitches in an 11-strikeout, no-walk performance. Morris (15-8) retired 13 of the first 14 Dodgers he faced and 27 of 29 overall while facing two over the minimum.

Only Lima (11-5), who pitched seven strong innings in rebounding from a poor performance in his last start, and Robin Ventura had hits against Morris, and the Dodgers did not have a runner advance to second base.

“He was throwing a good curveball, slider, changeup, fastballs,” Ventura said. “It was about as good as it gets.”

Morris worked quickly and efficiently in recording his second shutout this season and eighth of his career, throwing 81 strikes in 111 pitches in a 1-hour 58-minute game.

Second-place San Francisco pulled within 5 1/2 games of the Dodgers (78-56) in the National League West as Morris set the tone for the series.

“It has been kind of an up-and-down year,” said Morris, who has a 4.40 earned-run average but has won his last three starts.

“The whole season has been kind of a roller-coaster ride. With this offense, if I was half as good as I was a couple of years ago, I would have won a ton of games.”

On Friday, Morris was very good, the Dodgers said.

“I don’t know that we’ve seen a better pitching performance than the one that Matt Morris put on,” said Manager Jim Tracy, whose team dropped to 6-5 on a four-city, 13-game, 14-day trip, “He had every pitch and he located every pitch. Jose Lima did a very credible job and he gave us a chance to win.

“But offensively ... we had nothing to offer offensively. That guy was that good. He just dominated the game.”

Lima was pretty good as well, especially considering the opponent.

The Cardinals, winners of seven in a row, have the major leagues’ best record at 90-44. The NL Central leaders lead the league in runs and batting average.

Lima went 1-4 with a 7.11 ERA in his first 14 career appearances against the Cardinals, whose everyday lineup includes three players considered among the leading candidates for the NL most valuable player award: Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds.

But Reggie Sanders made the biggest contribution Friday.

After Edmonds doubled with one out in the second on a play that easily could have been ruled an error on left fielder Jason Grabowski, Sanders drove in St. Louis’ first run with a two-out double. Sanders also led off the fifth with his 21st home run on Lima’s first pitch. Mike Matheny’s one-out homer -- his fourth -- in the seventh against Lima capped the scoring.

“This is a team that you cannot make a mistake against,” said Lima, who has losses in his last two starts after winning five consecutive decisions from July 6 through Aug. 10.

“My head hurts so much. [Leadoff batter Tony] Womack is a pain. You get him on base, then you got [Larry] Walker, then you got Pujols, then you got Rolen, then you got Edmonds. There are no easy outs.

“You’ve got to keep fighting and fighting and fighting. I said, ‘Lima, pitch like this is the last game of your career.’ ... It’s not that you’re afraid of this team, but this is a ballclub that you probably have to do your homework on a little bit more compared to other guys. They hammer everybody.”

The Dodgers said Lima did his job, but they couldn’t handle Morris.

“His stuff was nasty,” batting instructor Tim Wallach said. “If he throws [five] pitches like he was throwing tonight, he’ll do that every time. It’s tough to do that every night, but that was as good as I’ve seen all year. It wasn’t even close.”

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Mound Magic

Matt Morris’ two-hit shutout with no walks and 11 strikeouts in a 3-0 St. Louis victory is a strong candidate for best-pitched game against the Dodgers this season. It was only the third time the Dodgers have been shut out in a complete-game performance. The others:

* May 20 at Philadelphia: Brett Myers gave up five hits, walked two and struck out five in a 4-0 victory for the Phillies.

* June 9 at Toronto: Miguel Batista gave up four hits, walked two and struck out eight in a 4-0 victory for the Blue Jays.