6/8 Stewart deals with sore wrist

For the last couple of weeks, Ian Stewart has played with his left wrist well wrapped. He’s had soreness since Spring Training, and the discomfort has expanded.

“It was starting to get sore on the other side of my wrist, on the inside part,” Stewart said Friday. “The tape job that Mark [O'Neal, head athletic trainer] came up with has been helping. It’s helped stabilize it and it’s keeping it from bending one way or another too much.”

Dale Sveum has kept Stewart in the lineup because of his glove work, saying: ”That defense is tough to take out of the lineup.”

The wrist problems haven’t affected his defensive play.

“For the most part, the movement with the glove is more with the arm than the wrist,” Stewart said.

He has struggled at the plate, and entered Friday’s game batting .194 overall and was 3-for-17 on this seven-game road trip. Sveum dropped Stewart to ninth in the lineup for the first game of the Cubs Interleague series against the Twins. Is he frustrated?

“Definitely,” Stewart said. “I haven’t gotten hot this year yet. It’ll come and everything will just take care of itself.”

– Carrie Muskat