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Looking for spark, Piniella tweaks lineup

Cubs manager Lou Piniella made what he called "subtle" lineup shifts for Tuesday's game against the Florida Marlins.

He flip-flopped Kosuke Fukudome and Ryan Theriot, moving Fukudome into the leadoff spot and dropping Theriot to second.

No. 3 hitter Derrek Lee found himself batting cleanup, with Marlon Byrd moving to third.

As usual, the pregame banter turned to the need for Lee and third baseman Aramis Ramirez to start hitting.

"We've talked about ... look, they're trying," Piniella said. "They really are. They're trying. Nobody wants to make outs. You know what's amazing about our situation is that we've got five guys in the lineup hitting .300. We're fourth or so in the league in hitting with a .272 batting average. And we struggle to score runs.

"Now we're second in the league in left on base, which tells a little bit of the story. But, gosh, it's hard for me to believe that we can't consistently score 4 or more runs a game with the people that we have."

Although he didn't seem thrilled with the move, Lee took it in stride.

"I have no take," Lee said. "It is what it is. I'm batting fourth. I'll go out there and do my best. Hopefully, it works."

Aside from moving players around, Piniella said there wasn't much else he could do.

"We need for them to hit for us to score runs consistently," he said. "I don't know exactly what our choices are."

Patience, please: Lou Piniella urged patience with shortstop Starlin Castro, who made 3 errors and didn't hustle after a ball on one of the errors Monday.

"No, I talked to him last night," Piniella said. "He's going to learn. We talked to him more than anything else about tags at second base and how to properly get that glove down. The other? He's a confident kid. Didn't make the play, and it probably surprised him more than anything else. We had a nice talk with him last night. Everything's fine. We're just going to grow with it.

"He'll be fine. Let's not get too occupied with this."

Road to Wrigley: The Cubs' Class A Peoria Chiefs farm club will play the Kane County Cougars at Wrigley Field on July 7 at 7:05 p.m. in the third annual "Road to Wrigley" game.