Morgan Tiptoes Through Reds, and Dodgers Get a 3-0 Victory

It may have been a mystery to the sellout crowd of 48,295 at Dodger Stadium why pitcher Mike Morgan would leave in the midst of the Dodgers’ 3-0 shutout victory over the Cincinnati Reds Wednesday night.

But the guy sitting in the left-field pavilion couldn’t see what catcher Rick Dempsey spotted when he walked out to the mound after Morgan’s first pitch to Eric Davis with two out in the sixth inning.

“I looked down at his feet,” Dempsey said, “and it looked like his toe was sticking a half inch out of his shoe.”

Mike Morgan has an abnormal bone growth on his right big toe. With the number of needles they’ve stuck in him the last two years, he must feel like a pin cushion.

He estimates that he had six or seven cortisone shots last season, another half-dozen the year before, all in an effort to control the swelling in his toe.

Ever wonder what a cortisone shot feels like?

“It hurts like hell,” Morgan said. “It took three or four guys to hold me down when they gave me a shot. That ought to speak for itself.”

Last August, while he was still with the Baltimore Orioles, Morgan underwent surgery to remove bone chips from the toe. He also swore he was through with injections, switching to anti-inflammatory pills instead.

Some nights, like Wednesday, Morgan will only be able to go so far.

“You have to expect that,” he said. “When a guy has his arm cut on, he’s going to have good days and bad days. It’s the same thing with my foot.”

For Morgan, even on the days he has pitched well, most of his career has been spent waiting for the other shoe to drop. That’s what comes from having a career record of 34-68, the worst of any major league pitcher who has been around for awhile.

The surprise comes from nights like Wednesday, when Morgan admits to not having good stuff, his foot acts up, and he still winds up a winner--with the help of three Dodger relievers who finished off the five-hit shutout, giving the Dodgers consecutive blankings of the Reds.

“Morgan must have had a horseshoe in his pocket,” Cincinnati Manager Pete Rose said. “The first four innings we hit three or four balls hard for hits, another four or five balls hard for outs.”

Rose would get no argument from Morgan (1-1), who has as many wins as a Dodger as he had all of last season with Baltimore.

“Good scouting reports,” Morgan said with a smile, noting the Reds’ penchant for hitting balls right at people.

“Sometimes you have great stuff and get beat by a flare. Tonight, I get patted in the back, even though they hit line drives. Hey, I need some breaks in my career.”

Dempsey, whose two-out, run-scoring double in the second inning gave Morgan the 1-0 lead he took into the sixth, decided not to push Morgan’s luck too far.

“He walked by me right after we got the second out and said, ‘I got to tell you, ‘My toe is really killing me,’ ” Dempsey said.

“That first pitch to Davis was an 82-m.p.h. fastball. I could tell he was struggling for two or three innings. He was staying back, he couldn’t put any pressure (on his foot).”

Morgan didn’t protest when pitching coach Ron Perranoski came out and summoned Tim Crews, who finished the inning by striking out Davis. Ray Searage and Jay Howell also did their part in lowering the Dodger staff’s earned-run average on this homestand to 1.03 on eight earned runs in 70 innings.

“After the first pitch had nothing on it, in a 1-0 game and Eric Davis up there, you can’t (fool around),” Morgan said.

The Dodger lead expanded in the bottom of the sixth when Willie Randolph led off with a ground-rule double, advanced to third on Dave Anderson’s sacrifice and scored on Mike Marshall’s foul fly.

That made it 2-0, and Eddie Murray, who walked, eventually came around to score on singles by Mickey Hatcher and John Shelby, despite narrowly avoiding being picked off second by Red loser Tom Browning.

In fact, Murray was caught but in the view of second-base umpire Gary Darling somehow avoided second baseman Ron Oester’s tag.

“He was out,” Rose said matter-of-factly. “What happened there is Murray fell asleep. I’m just going by what Murray said to Lee May (the Reds’ first-base coach and longtime friend of Murray).

“When you get caught off that far, you should be out, even if he did miss the tag. The high throw made (Darling) call him safe. That’s the kind of night it was.”

It was the kind of night when the teams combined for a grand total of 11 hits, with Morgan pitching out of his only serious jam in the second--when three straight singles loaded the bases with one out. Morgan struck out Oester with a fastball running away, then retired Browning on a sharp ground-out.

“We miss their best two pitchers, Hershiser and Leary, and we get shut out twice after not being shut out all year,” Rose said. “That’s unexpected from my standpoint.

“If you look at the averages on both teams, a lot of guys are struggling, a lot of guys have .195’s, most guys are hitting under their career averages.”

But the Dodgers, with a league-low batting average of .216, still took two of three from the Reds.

“If we keep getting pitching like that,” Dempsey said, “we’ll be right back in the race.”

Dodger Notes

Kirk Gibson sat out again Wednesday night, the fourth time in the last five games he has not started. . . . A big league name, but does he have a big league arm?: Timber Mead, who plays for the Reds’ Class AA farm club in Chattanooga, was named Southern League pitcher of the week. . . . The Dodgers are off today, then will open a three-game homestand against the San Francisco Giants Friday night. Orel Hershiser (2-1) is scheduled to pitch for the Dodgers against Kelly Downs (1-1). . . . This is the second straight season that Eric Davis has started slowly. The Reds’ outfielder, who had one infield single in 10 at-bats here, hit .179 last April. He’s down to .200 (11 for 55) this season.