Castro opens season on fire at the plate

It’s looking like there’s not much Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro can’t do.

The 21-year-old Castro still may be a work in progress in the field, but he’s done it all for the Cubs in their first three games of the season.

On Sunday, manager Mike Quade moved Castro up into the leadoff spot. Castro responded with a walk, 2 triples and a single.

For the first three games of the season, Castro is 8-for-13 (.615) with a .643 on-base percentage and a 1.000 slugging percentage.

“I feel pretty good,” Castro said. “I don’t care the spot that he puts me in. I want to be here to play baseball. That’s it.”

Quade looked at matchups before batting Castro first. Castro hit second the first two games of the season, and if he emerges as the team’s best hitter, it’s not out of the question he could hit third.

“I hope so,” Quade said. “I don’t want to put too much on people too fast. I think he’s talented enough to do that someday. He runs well enough. There are so many things to like about that possibility. But let’s hope so. One and 3 are good. Two is good. Somewhere at the top of the lineup. He’s got the ability to be a real special player both offensively and defensively. If he reaches his potential, why not in the 3-hole someday?”

One thing scaring Quade is the way Castro slides into bases. He waits a long time before hitting the bag.

“We need to get him sliding a little earlier,” Quade said.

Strategy questions:

Mike Quade didn’t flinch from a strategy question after Sunday’s 5-4 loss to the Pirates. In the ninth inning, he took left fielder Alfonso Soriano out for defensive purposes, replacing him with Reed Johnson.

With the Cubs down 5-4 in the bottom of the inning, Johnson led off against Pirates closer Joel Hanrahan. It was a righty-righty matchup.

Quade was asked if the left-handed hitting Kosuke Fukudome was an option. The Cubs also had lefty Blake DeWitt on the bench. DeWitt hit a game-breaking double Saturday. Fukudome is 0-for-5 with 3 strikeouts against Hanrahan.

“And Hanrahan’s numbers were better against left-handers than right-handers, and on and on and on,” Quade said.

“I thought in that situation we’d give Reed an opportunity. No, you can second-guess. We had a couple left-handers. We had Blake after a big hit last night.

“Reed’s a little gamer, and I (thought), ‘You’re facing a pretty tough closer there.’ I thought I’d give him a chance to hit. But those options were there, for sure.”

Quade himself mentioned that he had the infield playing back in the ninth inning when the Pirates had runners on second and third and one out. Pedro Alvarez wound up grounding a single past pitcher Carlos Marmol that scored 2 runs when Starlin Castro fielded the ball and could not get the runner at first.