Pulling the old switcher-Lou

That didn't take long.

Moments after the Cubs fell 8-2 to the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday at Wrigley Field, manager Lou Piniella announced that he was changing his mind again.

Drum roll, please.

"I'm going to put Soriano back in the leadoff spot tomorrow and move Theriot to the 2-hole," Piniella said, referring to left fielder Alfonso Soriano, who prefers to bat first but who opened the season second with shortstop Ryan Theriot leading off.

Soriano has enjoyed most of his career success batting first, but Piniella wanted to protect his slugger's troublesome legs in the cold weather. Now, all that apparently is out the window -- at least for now.

"I don't know," Piniella said. "But we'll just do it that way. It's something I've been thinking about since the end of spring training. And we'll just go with it."

It's always wise to bet the under on how many days Piniella will go before changing his mind on any given subject, but even this one had players smiling and rolling their eyes in the clubhouse.

"I don't know," said first baseman Derrek Lee after a brief chuckle. "I don't think it matters where Sori hits. He's going to hit."

Did it surprise Lee?

"I guess it shouldn't, but I think it does," he said.

Soriano went 0-for-5 with 2 strikeouts in Monday's opener. On Wednesday, he was 0-for-4, including a big strikeout in the seventh inning with runners on second and third with two outs and the Cubs down 5-2.

"I batted leadoff all my career," Soriano said. "I feel comfortable batting leadoff. It was my first time batting second, this year. But it's not because of that. I see the same pitches. It's not a big deal for me."

The Cubs are 0-2, but what seemed to bother Piniella most was how his club played Wednesday.

The fielders committed 2 errors. Center fielder Felix Pie airmailed the cutoff man on one throw home, allowing a runner to advance as the run scored. Second baseman Mike Fontenot and relief pitcher Carmen Pignatiello couldn't execute a 4-1 putout in the eighth inning, and that led to a run.

Pignatiello and starting pitcher Ted Lilly each hit the Brewers' Prince Fielder with a pitch. On offense, Kosuke Fukudome struck out, and Aramis Ramirez was caught stealing at second on a double play in the fourth after Lee opened with a home run.

The game began badly enough for the Cubs, with Lilly giving up a home run to Rickie Weeks on the first pitch. Piniella said Lilly did not have his fastball.

"I wouldn't argue with Lou," Lilly said. "Not only wasn't velocity where I would like it to be, but I think my command wasn't there, either. When you've got kind of both of those things working against you, you're going to have to find other ways to get guys out, and I wasn't really able to locate the other pitches."

Even though Piniella talked all spring of getting off to a good start, nobody with the Cubs seems to be panicking.

"I hope that's a little bit of a fire," Lilly said. "Believe me, we came out with the intentions of going 2-0. We weren't able to do that, but you'd certainly like to get off to a good start.

"But like you saw last year, we weren't able to do that, but we continued to battle throughout the season, and we got ourselves in position to where we won the pennant (actually the division).

"I don't think we're ever going to backpedal in any way nor do we expect anyone else that we're playing throughout the course of the season."