Patrolling left field at Enron Field requires the pre-video-game skills of a pinball wizard. A lot of balls drain through the flippers over and off the short porch decorated with the out-of-town scoreboard, a wall that looks as if it’s crouching on the fielder’s shoulders.
Matt Stairs said he didn’t feel claustrophobic serving his first hitch there for a simple reason.
“I played at Fenway,” said Stairs, who logged time with Boston and the Oakland A’s before he was traded to the Cubs before this season.
“You’re real close to home plate and you know nobody’s going to run on you, so it’s pretty easy. With those kind of walls, you don’t know which way the ball’s going to hit, and thank God I had no balls over my head off the wall. It could go either way.
“It can be tricky, but our pitchers did such a good job I didn’t have to worry about it.”
Stairs was able to put his own silver ball in play around the bases as he got three straight starts against the Astros. He has started four of the last five games, by far his busiest stretch since the Cubs acquired veteran first baseman Fred McGriff in late July. Earlier this month, Stairs went a week between starts, owing partly to soreness after fouling a ball off his instep. But with Delino DeShields slumping at the plate, the Cubs need Stairs on base as much as possible.
His fortunes in the series reflected the Cubs’–a mostly forgettable first night followed by two solid efforts in close games, including Wednesday night’s 5-1 victory.
“I think what happened was, you saw a big difference in the team when we lost the first game and dropped into second place. We loosened up a little bit,” Stairs said.
He began the series slowly, going hitless in his first three at-bats. But after hitting a solo home run in the Cubs’ loss that night, he proceeded to reach base three of the four times he was up both Tuesday and Wednesday, singling three times, walking twice and reaching once on an error. He scored a run in all three games.
“I usually do have a high on-base percentage,” Stairs said. “That has to do with the days back in Oakland where I was told to pay attention and take the walks. I can be selective if I want. I think what happens when you don’t play a lot is you try to do too much.”
He has been tinkering with his stance over the last week, trying to make it easier to step in after he has been sitting for a game or two.
“With all the [swing] movement I have, with the leg kick and the hands, you pretty much have to stay in a rhythm of hitting every day and seeing live pitching,” Stairs said. “I’ve changed my stance a couple times over the last week. It has paid off a little bit.
“We’ll see what happens when Rock [outfielder Rondell White, currently rehabilitating with Double-A West Tenn] comes back. You can put a lot more offense in there. It strengthens our bench, and if I’m on the bench again, so be it. . . . I’m never going to complain, winning two out of three and having a pretty good series.”
Cubs manager Don Baylor said he will monitor Stairs’ aches and pains–mainly the chronic pain Stairs has in his surgically repaired left Achilles’ tendon–as he makes his lineup decisions for the upcoming Arizona series.
“I go on what his body tells me,” Baylor said. “If he’s aching a little bit with his ankle and Achilles’, I might hold him back for a day but then get him back in the lineup. I’ll see on Friday.”
