Matt Morris started the game against the Cubs today and had another less than sterling performance. He gave up 6 first inning runs, although it wasn't all his fault. The box score shows 1 error on Omar Vizquel that led to 3 unearned runs. There were no other errors in the inning, but there certainly were other miscues.

The leadoff batter hit a bouncing ball up the middle that second baseman Kevin Frandsen got to.......but the ball bounced off of the heel of his glove, about waist high. I think Alfonso Soriano may have beat it out anyway....but it would have been nice to see Frandsen hang onto the ball and at least have a chance at throwing him out. The 2nd batter of the game hit a high flyball to the wall in LF. Barry Bonds got back to the wall easily and looked like he had a bead on it. At the last second, Bonds ducked away and the ball hit off the wall right about where Bonds' head had been. He obviously lost the ball in the sun........and it went for an RBI double. The 3rd batter of the inning hit an easy groundball to Omar......and Omar just booted it for an error. The 4th batter of the inning got the 1st clean hit of the inning. Then the 5th hitter, again hit a ball to LF. Bonds barely had to move and had his glove shading the sun, but again at the last second, he went to the ground because he lost the ball and the ball deflected off of either his glove or his body for an RBI single.

Morris went on to give up another clean single and then a long triple to the pitcher Carlos Zambrano. The triple was the worst pitch of the game......a 0-2 nothing fastball right down the middle of the plate. Zambrano took the ball high off of the RCF wall. With the way the ball has been carrying the last couple of days, I thought it was a HR, but it missed by 2 or 3 feet. Just dumb.....really dumb. In the second inning Morris gave up a single a double and a walk to surrender another earned run.

In Morris' defense......4 misplayed balls in the first 5 batters of a game can set you back. But the Cubs hit him too well and his pitches were just too fat.......so he certainly does not get a free pass.