Morgan, Dodgers Stop Cubs, 3-0

Mike Morgan, who hasn’t been a .500 pitcher since the 1979 season at Ogden (well, he was 1-1 in 12 innings at Seattle four years ago), is making up for losstime as a Dodger this season.

He threw six more scoreless innings, on top of eight similar innings in his last start, to get his third consecutive victory.

Morgan, 3-1 with a league-leading earned-run average of 0.69, is still 32 games below .500 in his curious career. But after the Dodgers’ 3-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs Saturday night, he has certainly shown a reversal of fortunes. With the victory, before a Dodger Stadium crowd of 47,389, the Dodgers (15-15) are at .500, even if Morgan is still a ways under.

The story continues to be Morgan, 29, the sore-footed pitcher who was rescued from the Baltimore Orioles this spring. His best year in the majors was in 1987, when he went 12-17 with a 4.65 ERA. His worst, which is a tough pick, was probably last year at Baltimore, where he was 1-6 with a 5.43 ERA.

And now? Understated Mike Davis, who scored one run and drove in another: “I think the Dodgers got more than they expected when they got Mike Morgan over here.”

Morgan continues to be troubled by a sore big toe on his right foot, his power foot, the one he drives 220 pounds off with each pitch. Indeed, that was why he failed to get the shutout. He mentioned to his coaches that the toe had been bothering him all night, even as he warmed up in the bullpen. “Why take a chance?” Manager Tom Lasorda said afterward. Still, the six innings of three-hit ball he pitched, before yielding to reliever Jay Howell, were signs of a healthy career.

Morgan’s sudden development as a winning pitcher--he was 34-68 with five organizations before coming to the Dodgers--is difficult to account for. “More luck here,” is about all he’d do to address that issue. He got a couple of outstanding defensive plays--Mariano Duncan and Willie Randolph both made nice snags in the infield--and enough offense from the Dodgers’ stricken lineup. A walk and a single here, a walk and a double there, a stolen base and a hit over here.

But he is clearly operating on something beyond fortune. OK, he has got some talent. He was picked to the big leagues right out of high school, Charlie Finley doing the picking, which tells you he had some raw ability. And over the years, that ability never let him down. His teams did, of course. But the arm stayed hinged.

“I’ve got that arm,” he said after the game. “And I’ve worked hard all my career. I’ve come out on the short end, but I’ve always had the arm. That’s why six teams took a chance on me. When you’ve got an arm, teams will always take a chance on you.”

About all that looks to jeopardize his personal comeback is that toe. “Some pitchers wake up with sore arms,” he said, “I wake up with a sore foot.” He has had two surgeries on his foot and many cortisone shots. The off-season didn’t help as he continues to go off and on with soreness.

“It’s no fun,” he said, “and I’ll probably have to battle on it” the rest of the season. I can’t worry about my toe. It’s just one of those things that I’ll have to battle all season.”

It doesn’t hurt that anybody else notices. Not even Andre Dawson, who came into the game with hits in eight consecutive at-bats, could reach him. After Morgan halted the streak two shy of the National League record in the first inning, Dawson returned in the third to scratch out an infield single. That was about it for the Cubs’ offense.

The only other threat, and this tells you something, came in the fifth inning when Shawon Dunston topped a ball in front of the plate and tossed his bat ahead of it. He appeared to be safe on a close play, but then all four umpires convened for a confab and decided that the tossed bat was interference. He was out.

While the umpires discussed this, and the odd manager or two, Morgan continued to toss. He said later that the extra pitches probably didn’t help his sore toe. So now teams know how to chase him: Top a ball, throw a bat and yammer at the umpire.

The Dodgers meanwhile are not playing breakout ball themselves. The Cubs’ Rick Sutcliffe (4-2) was hardly hammered in his seven innings. He was more like chiseled. The Dodgers, with all their power on the bench (Kirk Gibson, Mike Marshall, et al), had to scratch away for their runs. In the fifth inning, John Shelby beat out an infield single, stole second and then scored on Franklin Stubbs’ single.

In the sixth, Davis walked and eventually scored on Mickey Hatcher’s single. Then in the eighth, Davis drove in Randolph with a double.

Davis, who had been batting .216 in spot play, was not overly excited about his two hits.

“It’s one game,” he said, “I still haven’t done anything.” He was more impressed with Morgan, whom he had seen in the American League. “Mike Morgan is awesome right now,” he said.

Morgan said there was nothing strange about it. “Throw strikes, get good defense,” he said. Still, a remarkable start, with only one regret: “I’d have liked to go nine, hear the roar of the crowd, the manager coming out.” A small thing, though, for a pitcher who’s finally back on the right, although sore, foot.

Dodger Notes

Jeff Hamilton, who missed Friday’s game while awaiting the birth of a child, didn’t start Saturday, but played. He was up into the wee hours the night before during his wife Shelley’s delivery of a baby boy at the Regional Medical Center in Tarzana. . . . Mike Marshall also missed another start, because of a stiff lower back. . . . Cub Andre Dawson was stopped two short of the National League record for consecutive hits. He hit a deep fly to right field in the first inning to end his streak at eight hits in a row. . . . The Dodgers’ medical makeshift lineup, the one that started Saturday night’s game, is not exactly Murderer’s Row. Only Eddie Murray had homered this season.