With little more than a week to go before the end of exhibition games, one of the leading hitters among Cubs regulars is the guy batting eighth in the order.
Catcher Scott Servais is hitting .424 and playing well defensively while nursing a sore knee.
“I felt real good with the bat early and have struggled the last 10 days,” Servais said. “When you first get into spring games, you play the first five or six games and you’ve got a lot of adrenaline, you’re really pumped up. Then you kind of hit that lull period. Now, hopefully by the end of this week and going into next week, you pick it up a little and get ready to tee it off.”
Servais is a career .243 hitter, but hit .286 in 52 games with the Cubs after coming from Houston in ’95, and .265 in a career-high 129 games last year.
“Scott is in his prime and he’s just getting better and better,” manager Jim Riggleman said. “He’s a guy who’s gotten his opportunity and seized it, which is a message we’re basically trying to send to these pitchers here. There’s an opportunity there. Take advantage of it. Scottie did that with the catching situation.”
Servais had a bag of ice on the sore knee after Thursday’s loss to Seattle, but said he plans to play on through it.
“That’s not going to affect me,” he said. “I’ll play (Friday) and keep on playing.”
Servais has been impressed by the play of the Cubs kids so far but warned not to make too much out of high spring averages, including his own.
“I’m happy for Kevin (Orie) and the guys in left field because they came here competing for a job and they’re doing well,” he said. “But it’s still spring. It’s not going to get any tougher than it is for us the first two weeks of the season.”
The kid: Rookie Jeremi Gonzalez pitched two innings Thursday and gave up a solo home run after striking out Jay Buhner and Paul Sorrento in the eighth, his third homer given up this spring. Gonzalez is a candidate for the starting vacancy, but doesn’t sound like your average 22-year-old.
“I don’t think you can play this game and be afraid,” Gonzalez said. “They’ve got the bat and you’ve got the ball. If you’re going to throw what you want to throw and hit your spot, you’ll be all right.”
The great race: With all the candidates hitting well, will the Cubs’ outfield derby go on until the final day of spring training?
“It might,” Riggleman said. “We don’t have any problems if it does. We want to be able to get this last week of spring training in when we pretty much know what our lineup is going to be. But they’re making it a very tough decision. We may have to eliminate some people who have earned the right not to be eliminated.”
Cactus talk: Randy Johnson started for Seattle Thursday and gave up three runs (one earned) on three hits in 4 2/3 innings while striking out three. He hit Brian McRae in the foot, but wasn’t wild inside as some had feared after his beaning of J.T. Snow last week. Johnson received a standing ovation from many fans when he came out of the game in the fifth inning. . . . Kevin Foster gave up one hit in his first four innings Thursday until the fifth, when he gave up two hits, a walk and a grand slam to Joey Cora. . . . Closer Mel Rojas has given up three home runs this spring in 8 2/3 innings, including one to Lee Tinsley on Thursday.
