Castro turning heads with batting title pursuit

ST. LOUIS - Rookie shortstop Starlin Castro is putting together quite the season for the Cubs.

In fact, it's so good that he has a shot at winning the National League batting title.

"Isn't that wonderful?" said Cubs manager Lou Piniella before his team opened a weekend series with the Cardinals. "No, this kid here, he's a player. He's a player. He's gotten better and better as the season's progressed. He makes his rookie mistakes, but we live with him and we work with him, and he's really coming along.

"What's he hitting, .315 or .320? How about that? He's taken to that 2-hole in the lineup, and yeah, he's a player."

Castro entered the game batting .320, but because he didn't come up from the minor leagues until May 7, he came into Friday 17 plate appearances short of qualifying for the NL leaderboard. He plays almost every day, so he should catch up by the time the season ends.

Although Castro had walked only 6.2 percent of the time up entering Friday, he had a good on-base percentage of .366. He came into Friday 10-for-20 on the road trip and 49-for-120 (.408) since July 10.

"I tell you this: One thing I've noticed is he's tightened up his strike zone a little bit," Piniella said. "He doesn't walk much, but that's because he doesn't swing and miss all that much, and he puts the ball in play. He's got good hand-eye.

"He's gotten better. There's no question about it. I'm sure these other teams are starting to pay more attention to him and where he's at in the lineup and how to pitch him and so forth. I haven't seen one specific way to pitch him."