Matt Morris Pitches Well, but Bucs Lose to Phillies

3-1. Matt Morris pitched two scoreless innings and struck out Ryan Howard, although even Morris admits that strike three was outside. (From the report, it sounds like a wide strike zone was a problem the whole game.) Non-roster pitcher Casey Fossum gave up two runs. The Bucs only managed eight singles and no extra-base hits even though the only major-league pitcher they faced was J.C. Romero.

The Post-Gazette's writeup also reports that pitching coach Jeff Andrews is trying to get Morris to get more of a downward plane on his pitches, in order to generate more ground balls. That's probably not a bad idea. Most of Morris' backward slide from his 2001-2002 peak has to do with the decrease in his strikeout rate, but he's also allowed more homers and fly balls than he used to.