Soriano plans rehab, quick return

Jim Hendry knew just by watching Alfonso Soriano's body language following a high, tight pitch Wednesday night that the result wasn't going to be good.

"From his threshold of pain level -- which is very, very high -- I felt it was a good chance we had a problem," the Cubs general manager said after Soriano was hit on his left hand by Jeff Bennett in the second inning.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella sensed the same thing.

"He's a tough kid; when he wanted to come out of the ballgame, that was a pretty good indication that something was wrong," Piniella said.

Was it ever.

The diagnosis: a broken hand and six weeks of rehab for the Cubs' hottest hitter of late.

"It's frustrating because I like to play every day and now I'm not able to play," said Soriano, sporting a light travel cast covering up three taped fingers on his left hand. "It's frustrating ... I don't know what I'm going to do now. You have to take it easy and try to come back very soon."

But taking it easy isn't in Soriano's vocabulary.

"He hates to sit," Hendry said. "He came here to win and play in a big market. I guess we should look at it that it's fortunate that it wasn't worse and it wasn't his wrist.

"We're optimistic that six weeks will be the max -- you'd expect that out of him. He's already predicting it won't be that long and he's a very fast healer."

Soriano, who said he didn't think Bennett plunked him on purpose, plans to make the most of his rehab. It'll involve more than just getting his hand back in shape.

"I'm also going to work on my legs so that when I come back I don't have to worry about them," he said.

Whether it's six weeks, four weeks or a couple of months, the Cubs are confident that they can more than hold their own until Soriano returns.

But once he's back … .

"We're a really good team without him," pitcher Ryan Dempster said. "We're an even better team with him."