Rockies are a good fit for Matsui

DENVER -- A bust on Broadway, Kaz Matsui traded the skyscrapers of Manhattan for the Rocky Mountains and found himself again.

“I wasn’t Kaz Matsui in New York,” the 31-year-old Japanese infielder said through his interpreter. “I don’t know why, but I wasn’t the player that I am.

“I’m so glad I’m here. I’m really comfortable now.”

The Mile High City isn’t the pressure-cooker New York is, and the Colorado clubhouse isn’t full of colossal contracts and menacing microscopes, either.

Maybe that had something to do with the metamorphosis of Matsui, who this season finally has flashed the skills that made him a seven-time all-star with the Seibu Lions before he parlayed that success into a $20.1-million, three-year deal with the Mets in 2003.

After flaming out in 2 1/2 seasons with the Mets, Matsui is thriving in calmer Colorado, which he put on the cusp of getting its first playoff series victory with the game of his life Thursday at Philadelphia.

“I got in a good environment on a good team, and I’m so happy about that,” Matsui said after driving in five runs in Colorado’s 10-5 victory that put the Rockies up, 2-0, in the best-of-five series that resumes tonight at Coors Field, where the humidor makes its playoff debut. Matsui batted .288 with four home runs and 37 runs batted in, scored a career-best 84 times in 104 games and stole a career-high 32 bases in 36 chances this season. He made only four errors in 515 chances.

But the numbers don’t begin to tell the story of his Colorado contributions.

“He’s a pest,” Phillies reliever Jose Mesa said. “He makes contact, and he hits pitches you don’t expect a hitter to hit.”

General Manager Dan O’Dowd couldn’t afford Matsui, who was a shortstop in Japan, when Matsui signed with the Mets, but his struggles made him affordable.

“We took a flyer on him to see if he could rediscover the skills that disappeared in New York,” O’Dowd said.

Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki said fans don’t see the real Matsui, whose stoic on-field image belies the clubhouse cutup he is, one who often teaches his curious teammates how to say things in Japanese.

“People don’t see it much, but he has a great personality and some humor to him,” Tulowitzki said. “New York wasn’t the right fit for him. Here, he’s found his place. There’s not as much media here, even though it’s starting to get like that.”