Vile for Kyle: Joe inspires Schwarber with vulgarity

ST. LOUIS— Sooner or later, manager Joe Maddon might have to come clean.

“No,” he said. “It’s that vile. I can’t do it.”

Maddon, of course, is talking about the inspirational words he says to Kyle Schwarber each time the leadoff man heads to the plate.

You know, like the “you go, we go” saying he employed for two years with former leadoff man Dexter Fowler.

Except this one “is slightly Xrated, so I can’t tell you,” Maddon said. “It’s not slightly X- rated. It’s totally X- rated. So I can’t publicly disclose.”

Schwarber is not disclosing, either.

But whatever the bleep it is, it seems to be working. Schwarber singled to right on the fourth pitch of the game Sunday night against Cardinals ace Carlos Martinez, and in his next at- bat, he worked the count to 3- 1 before doubling into the right- center gap.

“So far, it’s been working pretty well,” Maddon said even before the game. “He’s had a lot of good leadoff at- bats. He’s come up several times with runners in scoring position, when the 8- and 9- hole hitters have gotten on base. . . .

“It’s just something that I thought of. I thought it fit his personality, and he kind of likes it, so we do it.” So what’s the clean version? “There’s no way to clean it up and really get the point across,” he said.

Maybe we’ll have to wait for the T- shirt.

“That would sell on a T- shirt,” Maddon said, smiling, “if I could actually . . .”

Speaking of Schwarber

The young slugger had an extra- wide horseshoe hanging in his locker for the opener, a gift from the crew of the famed Budweiser Clydesdales. It was in response to Schwarber’s special delivery of a baseball last week as the horses pulled their beer wagon alongside the Cubs’ spring stadium in Arizona.

The wagon was parked for unloading when Schwarber parked a batting- practice homer over the protective netting along the street and hit one of the horses.

“I got him in the butt,” Schwarber said. “They put [ the horseshoe] in my locker. I’m going to take it with me everywhere. Hopefully it brings me some luck.”

His hits were the first of his career in April.

This and that

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said that right- hander Lance Lynn will start the third game of the series Wednesday against former Cardinal John Lackey.

† Before Maddon decided to make his opening lineup an ode to Game 7, he had Jon Jay starting in center field and Ben Zobrist at second base, he said. Javy Baez, the postseason hero for the Cubs and World Baseball Classic hero for Puerto Rico, was on the bench — where he’ll probably be again Tuesday. Maddon plans to use his best- fielding infielder strategically this season, even as he admits: “You could make the argument to play Javy at second base every day of the year.” Follow me on Twitter @GDubCub.