Soriano back leading off Tuesday

PHOENIX -- Cubs manager Lou Piniella made it official Sunday, and Alfonso Soriano couldn't have been happier about it.

"He's going to play Tuesday," Piniella announced Sunday before the Cubs played the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. "We're going to activate him unless he slips coming off the airplane."

That last part was a joke, but the Cubs are serious about bringing their left fielder and leadoff man off the disabled list in time for Tuesday night's opener of a big three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field.

Soriano has been on the DL since Aug. 6 with a strained right quadriceps, an injury he suffered while running the bases the night before.

"I'm very happy that he told me that," Soriano said. "I said to the trainer and Lou, 'I'm ready to play this weekend.' And they said, 'We want to give you three or four more days to be comfortable.' They want to make sure that I'm OK."

Even though Ryan Theriot has done well in the leadoff spot in Soriano's absence, Piniella reiterated that Soriano will return to the No. 1 spot in the lineup.

"I would think that's what we'll do," Piniella said. "We'll put Soriano back in the leadoff spot and Theriot in the 2-hole, and we'll adjust."

Soriano said he isn't sure how close to 100 percent he is, and the Cubs will want him to take it a bit easy at first.

"I don't know," Soriano said. "I feel good. We'll see when I play Tuesday. Running the bases, I feel good, so I can steal bases, too."

Piniella didn't want to reveal too much about Soriano's condition.

"We could wait another week, but he's not going to get any better than he is," Piniella said. "Limitations? He knows what he needs to do. I'm not going to give you limitations and let the other team read it."

Soriano is batting .297 with 18 home runs, 42 RBI, 18 stolen bases and a .336 on-base percentage in 444 at-bats.

"He's ready to go," Piniella said. "We felt it would be around Labor Day. He's about a week ahead of schedule."

Asked how the Cubs did without Soriano, Piniella replied: "We've held our own. We've had a couple tough road trips out west -- Colorado, San Francisco, Arizona. We just held our own. We'll leave it at that."