Memo to Cubs fans who have become impatient waiting for Fred McGriff to establish himself as a forceful No. 4 hitter:
Crime Dog wasn’t thrilled himself about hitting .244 in the first four weeks since he left Tampa Bay.
“I’ve been upset at myself,” McGriff said Saturday after breaking out with two singles, a home run and three RBIs in the Cubs’ 6-4 victory over the Cardinals at Wrigley Field.
“I take pride in my work. I made adjustments. Every day I’d go home, take my bat with me, work on some things.”
Take his bat home–did McGriff mean that literally or figuratively?
“There are a lot of things behind the scenes,” McGriff said. “Baseball is 24 hours, seven days a week. I don’t sleep with my bat, but I take it home, work on things.”
That work paid off before a crowd of 38,504 on Saturday. McGriff singled to right off Woody Williams (10-9) in the Cubs’ two-run first inning, scoring Ricky Gutierrez and moving Sosa, who later scored, to third.
In the third McGriff singled home Gutierrez again.
And in the sixth McGriff made it 4-0 when he hit a ball into the bleachers in left-center field, his third homer as a Cub, his 22nd of the season and the 439th of his big-league career.
The home run enabled McGriff to tie Andre Dawson for 26th place on baseball’s career list. The three RBIs gave McGriff 1,376 for his career, tying him with Johnny Bench for 51st place. His three hits raised his average as a Cub to .267.
For fans eager to see the Sosa-McGriff 1-2 punch carry the team in the division race, McGriff offered some cautious optimism.
“I’ve been staying back, seeing the ball and swinging better the last couple of days,” McGriff said. “But I’ve got a way to go. Baseball is a humbling game. It isn’t easy. If it were, we’d all hit .300.”
Jon Lieber helped McGriff pull the Cubs one game ahead of the third-place Cardinals going into Sunday’s final regular-season meeting.
On a day when the Cubs needed to avoid going to their depleted bullpen early, Leiber (17-5) pitched 81/3 innings.
The crowd, which included thousands of Cardinals fans, was treated to an emotional, nerve-wracking ninth inning when Tom Gordon relieved Lieber and walked two batters, forcing in a run, before he struck out Edgar Renteria with the bases loaded to end the game.
Lieber had a one-hit shutout and had faced the minimum 21 batters through seven innings. The Cardinals made it 6-2 when Jim Edmonds hit his 20th homer with a teammate aboard in the eighth.
“To me Jon Lieber is to us is what Pedro Martinez is to the Red Sox,” said Gordon, who came to the Cubs from Boston in the off-season.
Gordon earned his 26th save as the Cubs won for only the third time in their last 10 games.
Mark McGwire was out of the St. Louis lineup for a second day with a sore right hamstring.
Manager Tony La Russa said McGwire might pinch-hit in Sunday’s series finale.
