The starting left-field job is officially Ozzie Timmons’ for the taking. And it looks as if he just might be taking it.
Timmons made his second consecutive start against the Houston Astros Friday night and manager Jim Riggleman said Timmons would be out there again Saturday night.
“I’m going to try to play Ozzie out there and see if he can take the job,” said Riggleman. “Nobody else is doing anything. I would have preferred if we could have continued to platoon it, but we’re not getting any production out of that spot.”
Timmons, a right-handed hitter, and Scott Bullett, a left-hander, have been sharing the left-field job with an occasional start by Howard Johnson or Todd Zeile and an occasional late-inning stint by Kevin Roberson.
Bullett, however, has one hit in his last 17 at-bats and is batting .218 overall with one homer and nine runs batted in. Johnson is batting .117. And Roberson is hitting .152.
Timmons doubled in his first at-bat Friday night to drive in the Cubs’ first run. He was 1-for-1 with a walk, a sacrifice fly and two runs batted in on Thursday night.
“Unfortunately for Bullett, Johnson and Roberson, they are the ones who suffer because there aren’t a lot of spots in our lineup where we can make some changes to try to get a little more production,” said Riggleman.
Left out: Left-handed hitting catcher Rick Wilkins got the night off with the Astros starting lefty Mike Hampton. Wilkins batted .154 (8 for 52) against left-handers last year and is 5 for 31 (.161) this year.
Rare bird: Houston first-baseman Jeff Bagwell drove in the first run of the game with a sacrifice fly. It was just his second sac fly of the year. He was third in the league last year with 10.
Boo update: Third-baseman Steve Buechele is eligible to come off the disabled list on Monday, but Riggleman says it probably won’t happen that soon. Buechele strained a muscle in his left side about the time he lost his job to newly acquired Zeile.