Ryne Sandberg is expected to be back in the lineup Tuesday against Colorado after receiving 14 stitches in his right ear. The Cubs second baseman was hit in the head by a foul ball Sunday.
Trainer David Tumbas said Sandberg has medical clearance to play as soon as he feels ready. He’s officially listed as day-to-day.
“He has the green light,” Tumbas said. “He’s having the dressing removed from (the stitches Monday). I talked to his wife and she said he got through Sunday night just fine.”
Sandberg was hit in the head by a line-drive foul ball by teammate Brant Brown in a 6-4 loss to the Atlanta Braves. He was released from Northwestern Memorial Hospital Sunday night after a CAT scan and other tests were normal.
Young guns: Riggleman believes Brown and fellow rookies Kevin Orie and Brooks Kieschnick are feeling less pressure about the team’s 0-10 start than the veterans.
“They’re fine,” Riggleman said. “You have to remember, these aren’t 21-year-old kids. They’re 24. They’re mature and they can handle it. The microscope is more on the returning players.”
Brown is batting .143, including an 0-for-16 streak, and committed two errors in Sunday’s loss. The Cubs like his speed, but he has yet to steal a base this season.
Orie is hitting .179 and has struck out six times in 28 at-bats.
Kieschnick went 0 for 3 in his first start Saturday after getting called up from Triple-A Iowa. He spent only two weeks in the minors after his demotion at the end of spring training.
“It’s great to be back (in the majors), no matter what the circumstances,” Kieschnick said. “I just worked on some things I had been (working on) during spring training–trying to get in a groove and get my swing back.”
Was he upset about having to go back to the minors?
“I thought I had played well enough to stay with the club,” he said. “I took a day to get over it, then I moved on.”
Need for speed: Riggleman said he doesn’t plan to shake up the lineup, but he wants to get outfielder Doug Glanville some work against right-handed pitchers.
Glanville is hitting .353 with three runs scored in only 17 at-bats. He also has one of the Cubs’ three stolen bases and his speed is an asset in left field.
Riggleman platooned Glanville for Kieschnick in left Sunday against Atlanta left-hander Tom Glavine. Glanville went 2 for 4, scored twice and made a great catch on Fred McGriff’s line drive to left in the seventh.
Fork in the road: Colorado went 28-53 away from Coors Field last year with a .228 team average and only 72 of their 221 homers. But in their opening road trip of ’97, the Rockies batted .273, scored 40 runs and hit 15 homers while going 4-2 at Cincinnati and Montreal. Last year they didn’t hit their 15th road homer until May 10 at Florida.
Manager Don Baylor set out to change the team’s image as a ballclub that can hit only in the homer haven of Coors Field.
“We talked about it in spring training and it wasn’t going to be a factor,” Baylor said. “We were going to let ’96 go by the boards. We have veterans on this club. This is how they answer back.”
Said slugger Larry Walker: “A lot of people were saying `same old Rockies’ after the first two games–that nothing has changed. Well, it has.”
Lucky Cubs.
