Making a Pitch for Lead : AL Game 1: Morris and Stewart, two of the game’s most competitive players, go at it tonight.

The Blue Jays spent more than $13 million on Jack Morris and Dave Winfield this year, buying a chance at postseason redemption, but Morris refuses to see either the financial picture or the ghosts of Toronto’s past playoff failures.

What he will see tonight, when he faces the Oakland Athletics before nearly 50,000 fans in the SkyDome, is what he saw while winning two playoff games and two World Series games for the Minnesota Twins a year ago. Morris will see his target and only that, he says, forbidding anything else to come between him and the goal that eluded the Blue Jays in 1985, 1989 and 1991.

“All I can do is my best,” said Morris, who capped a splendid 1991 season by pitching 10 shutout innings against the Atlanta Braves in the Twins’ 1-0 Game 7 World Series victory. “I’ve done it in the past and I can promise you I’ll do it again. I know how to block out the distractions that go on. The crowd will be into it, and hopefully I won’t let them play in my little world.

“My little world is 60 feet 6 inches from a glove I’m trying to throw to. I’ve got to focus on that.”

Morris, signed by Toronto as a free agent last winter, tied Texas’ Kevin Brown for the American League lead this season with 21 victories, despite a 4.04 earned-run average. His value to the Blue Jays was immeasurable because he steadied a pitching staff ravaged by injuries and kept the Blue Jays ahead of the late-charging Milwaukee Brewers.

“Without Jack Morris, we would not be here,” Blue Jay Manager Cito Gaston said Tuesday. “In August, all of our pitchers were struggling except Jack Morris. Jack is the type of guy who, if you put up a couple of runs and you need him to hold (the lead), he’ll hold it. He wants to be No. 1 every time he walks on the field.”

Morris’ accomplishments are formidable. The 37-year-old right-hander is 3-1 in the playoffs with Detroit and Minnesota, and 4-0 in World Series play with the 1984 championship Tigers and last year’s Twins. Should the Blue Jays win the World Series, he would become the first pitcher to win a World Series championship with three teams.

But for all his exploits, Morris has met his competitive match in Dave Stewart, who will start for the A’s tonight.

Stewart, a four-time 20-game winner, overcame soreness in his pitching elbow in posting a 12-10 record and a 3.66 ERA this season. He is 5-0 with a 1.79 ERA in three playoff series for Oakland, and two of those victories were over Toronto in the A’s five-game playoff triumph in 1989.

“You look at Stewart, and he has always risen to the occasion. Jack is going to have his hands full,” Gaston said. “Jack loves to go out there and have that type of competition. . . . Superstars have a way of reaching back for something more when they need it or want it. These two guys do that.”

In a series that promises close matchups in virtually every category--give the A’s an edge in speed, the Blue Jays the edge in defense and in the bullpen except for Dennis Eckersley--the Game 1 pitching matchup is especially appealing.

“He’s a battler. He doesn’t quit,” Morris said of Stewart. “In some ways, he’s a lot like myself in terms of we might not have our best stuff, but we’ll somehow find a way to win. I expect him to be that way.”

Stewart, 35, said he will show his respect for Morris by not showing any emotion at all.

“I’m going to really try to take that situation and remove Jack and try to concentrate on pitching against the Blue Jays,” he said.

Stewart’s concentration helped him prevail over the elbow pain that put him on the disabled list for 25 days in late June and early July.

“To his credit, he always got turned on by the challenge of winning 20, but when he saw he couldn’t, he changed his focus to helping us win,” Oakland Manager Tony La Russa said. “For much of the season, he wasn’t there physically. But as he started to feel better, you could see the same old Stew.”

Gaston said the Blue Jays’ scouts saw Stewart’s fastball reach its old range of 90-92 m.p.h., figures that drew a laugh from Stewart.

“That must be on a fast gun,” he said. “That would probably be my last ballgame if I ever threw that hard.

“Health has never been a problem for me in the past. I had some outings I felt I could have gone seven, eight innings and was out after five. It’s been difficult to adjust to the way I had to pitch this year, but Tony always told me the rewards would be great. I pitched well the second half and I’m starting (tonight), so maybe that’s what he was talking about.”

The rewards for both, in truth, are in the test.

“I don’t know the task gets any easier,” Morris said. “It’s always a challenge, always difficult. I think the fact that I’ve been here before makes me personally relaxed and comfortable.

“I know (tonight) that wonderful little feeling is going to come back. It’s playoff time in October and it’s a fun time for me. I’ve been very fortunate. I was talking with some of my old buddies in the Detroit locker room (last weekend), Alan Trammell and Dave Bergman, and they said, ‘You’re really lucky.’ I said, ‘I am.’ I’ve played on some good teams in Detroit, a great team last year and a great team this year.”

Said Stewart: “I’ve played this game 13 seasons. My first six, I was just considered a player in this game. To be recognized, to be counted on to be consistent in what I’m doing, that’s a thing you relate to. I think when I leave this game, people will say, ‘Dave Stewart was there when we needed him.’ ”