Cards select Morris to confront Schilling

BOSTON -- Matt Morris won't need to have his ankle stitched up or anything drastic like that, but he'll do something for the first time when he starts Game 2 of the World Series tonight.

Morris will be on three days of rest when he pitches for the St. Louis Cardinals against Curt Schilling and the Boston Red Sox.

"I think the last time I pitched on short rest was a Wiffle ball game when I was 10," the Cardinals right-hander said before Game 1 on Saturday.

"There's nothing to rest for," he said. "I'm not saving myself for anything. I don't know what to expect, but I expect that I'm going to go out and make pitches. My body doesn't know at this point what rest is."

Schilling pitched Tuesday night against the New York Yankees, so he'll be going on the normal four days of rest. But it's not like he's been on vacation: On Saturday, he had his right leg jury-rigged with sutures to keep a torn tendon from slipping over his ankle.

The Red Sox right-hander had the same procedure to help him bounce back from his Game 1 start in the AL Championship Series, when he allowed six runs on three innings for his worst postseason start since 1993. In Game 6, he held the Yankees to one run on four hits in seven innings.

"We were out of options," Schilling said. "I was not going to be able to pitch Game 6. That was clear. I was not going to go out there feeling the way I felt in Game 1.

"When [the doctor] explained it to me, it made total sense. Whether it had ever been done or not was not really relevant to me at that point."

Acquired by the Red Sox in the offseason to bolster a rotation that already had Pedro Martinez as its ace, Schilling led the major leagues with 21 wins, and he was second in the AL in ERA and third in strikeouts. He will have surgery after the season; he has also had his ankle regularly injected with a painkiller.

"That's why we wanted him so badly because he'll be a good pitcher through thick and thin," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "He's a competitor, he's good, that's why he came here and he wants to fulfill that, and he will."

Morris has never pitched in Fenway Park or faced the Red Sox, but he visited when he was in the Cape Cod League. Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek was a teammate on Hyannis.

Although Morris had been expecting to start Game 3, with Jason Marquis in the second game, manager Tony La Russa told Morris on Friday to get ready to pitch.

"Things change in a hurry," Morris said. "I thought I was going to have a better night's sleep last night, but I didn't.

"It comes down to the final seven games, winning one series and whoever they think gives them the best chance of winning."

Morris was much better at home (9-4, 3.69 ERA) than on the road this year (6-6, 6.02). But he's much more experienced in the postseason than Marquis, making eight starts, and he only threw 80 pitches on Wednesday night.

The biggest problem with Morris has been inconsistency. The opening day starter for the third straight season, he was 15-10, but his 4.72 ERA trailed the rotation and he had a tendency to follow some of his best outings with some of his worst.

"We had an edge, and we decided to play it," La Russa said. "If he had pitched a more normal game, had to reach deeper, we couldn't have done it."