SAN FRANCISCO -- With his team needing a victory, St. Louis pitcher Matt Morris pitched a magnificent game in Game 5 Monday night. At least, except for the hit batters.

	Morris

Morris hit three batters, including his old Game 1 pal, Kenny Lofton. He hit the outfielder in the lower back to lead off the fourth inning. Morris had given up a homer to Lofton in Game 1 and the next time Lofton came up against reliever Mike Crudale he got a pitch high and tight. That Game 1 tightness got Lofton hollering and sent both teams onto the field, though no punches were thrown.

He hit him in the lower back to lead off the fourth Monday night, but didn't give up a run that inning. Morris didn't give up a run in the sixth inning, either, when he hit Rich Aurilia with Lofton on first. But when he hit Jeff Kent to load the bases in the eighth, it finally cost him. Barry Bonds hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game 1-1.

"I hit Kent with a curveball,'' Morris said. "Obviously, I wasn't real excited about the situation of facing Bonds with the bases loaded but the ball rolled out on me and it hit him.''

Lofton got his revenge in the ninth when he singled home the series-winning run to beat Morris and the Cardinals.

"I loved it,'' Bonds said. "It was on purpose. Morris is too good a pitcher to hit anybody like that. He has pinpoint accuracy. He let his emotions get to him. It just goes to show you, God doesn't like ugly. It comes back to bite you in the ass. But that's OK, he had the first laugh and Kenny had the last laugh.''

"It probably was on purpose,'' Lofton said. "But the purpose now is that I'm going to the World Series and he's going home.''

The animosity is mutual.

"There's a lot of hatred now,'' St. Louis reliever Steve Kline said. "But that's all right. It makes for a good rivalry.''

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com.