Morgan Is at Home on Mound as Dodgers Beat Cubs Again, 3-1

Memo to Century 21: Baseball nomad Mike Morgan is out of the housing market.

“I’m tired of moving,” said the Dodger pitcher, who will have a permanent place in the starting rotation if he continues to pitch as he did in the Dodgers’ 3-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs here Wednesday in Wrigley Field.

“I’ve got a house in Seattle, a house in Baltimore, a house in Vegas and a cabin in Utah,” said Morgan, who has four times as many mortgages as he had victories--one--last season with Baltimore. “I’m renting Tim Leary’s house right now.”

If Morgan, acquired in a trade for minor league outfielder Mike Devereaux this spring, can resuscitate his career the same way his landlord did, the least Dodger General Manager Fred Claire can do is offer to make Morgan’s monthly payments. But it’s too soon, Morgan said, to be thinking about getting a place of his own in Los Angeles.

“I bought a house in Seattle and got traded,” he said. “I bought one in Baltimore and got traded, too, so maybe it’s a bad omen.”

Besides, there are advantages to having Leary for a landlord.

“He gave me a good deal,” said Morgan, grinning. “And he gives me a ride to the ballpark every day, too.”

In that vein, Manager Tom Lasorda should offer to carry Alfredo Griffin to home plate on his back whenever the bases are loaded. Griffin is barely hitting Lasorda’s weight, .203, but with the bases jammed he is transformed into another Eddie Murray, albeit without the home run swing.

Griffin cleared the bases in the second inning by slashing a double down the right-field line off previously unbeaten Rick Sutcliffe, whose bid to become baseball’s first five-game winner this season disappeared in one bad inning.

Since becoming a Dodger last season, Griffin has seven hits in 11 at-bats with the bases loaded. He also has walked twice and driven in 21 runs.

“I’m lucky with the bases loaded, I don’t know,” Griffin said with a shrug. “If I have to wait until the bases are loaded to get a hit, I’m in trouble.”

Griffin was once Morgan’s teammate in more troubled times for the pitcher, when both were in Toronto and Morgan was bouncing around the American League, trying to find himself.

“He’s the same guy,” Griffin said. “But he’s in a new league and has to prove himself. He knows he needs a good year.”

Obviously, Morgan, who is 2-1 and lowered his earned-run average to 1.08 with a yield of one run on five hits in seven innings, is off on the right foot. That foot, incidentally, which caused him to leave in the sixth inning of his previous start because the pain became too unbearable, held up well Wednesday, although Morgan wound up handling six balls hit back to him.

“The pain is going to be the same all year,” said Morgan, who has an abnormal bone growth in his big toe, a hereditary trait. “I just have to ice it and hope in a couple of days it will calm down. It’s a good pain when you win, though.”

It’s also a good feeling, especially for a new player, to know he’s contributing something to the cause.

“A lot of guys’ careers start out slow,” Morgan said. “Mine started out slow and stayed real slow.

“When you’re a superstar, it’s tough to stay there. When you’re not, you just have to work hard and try to get to that level.”

Sutcliffe, a former Cy Young Award winner, is now a trimmed-down superstar, having dropped almost 25 pounds at the urging of Doug Collins, the Chicago Bulls’ coach. The one-time Dodger, trying to rebound from a 13-14 record last season, struck out 10 and allowed only five hits in eight innings, but couldn’t keep the Cubs from losing for the eighth time in the last nine games.

The Cubs, who had won seven straight, have scored two runs or fewer in seven of the last nine games. They had been blanked for 15 consecutive innings until singles by Ryne Sandberg and Mark Grace--who had three hits for the second straight game--produced Chicago’s only run.

Alejandro Pena, who relieved Morgan in the eighth, put two runners on but retired Mitch Webster on a checked-swing tapper to end the inning. In the ninth, Sandberg led off with a single, which prompted Lasorda to bring in Jay Howell. Andre Dawson, who is 0 for 8 in the series and has hit only one ball out of the infield, popped out on Howell’s first pitch.

Grace hit a single on a 0-and-2 pitch to put runners on the corners, but Howell struck out Vance Law and Curtis Wilkerson to end the game and record his second save.

“Their guys aren’t swinging the bats real well,” Griffin said. “Maybe it’s just our pitching, but Andre and the second baseman (Sandberg) aren’t really swinging the way we know they can.”

Griffin flashed a smile.

“That’s OK with me, though.”

Dodger Notes

The Dodgers have won three straight and eight of their last 10 to move two games above .500 for the first time this season. They have won eight in a row against the Cubs in Wrigley Field. The Cubs haven’t beaten the Dodgers here since July 11, 1987, when Steve Trout shut out the Dodgers, 7-0. . . . Kirk Gibson, bothered by a left hamstring, sat out Wednesday’s game, as did Jeff Hamilton, who has a sore right ankle. Mike Davis played left field and made a nice running catch of Mitch Webster’s drive in the fourth inning.

Eddie Murray, who had a double and a single in three at-bats, is batting .520 in his last five games. Murray’s average is up to .269, and he also deftly started a double play in the fifth inning. . . . Billy DeLury, the team’s longtime traveling secretary and acknowledged as one of the best in the business, is resigning for personal reasons and taking a job in the club’s ticket department. . . . Orel Hershiser, 3-1, and Greg Maddux, 0-3, are today’s starting pitchers.