Long day for Piniella, short one for Dempster

Lou Piniella's answers were short and clipped.

And that was before his Cubs went out and lost 10-3 to the White Sox on Friday at U.S. Cellular Field.

Maybe the Cubs' manager knew the lineup and defense he was throwing out there weren't going to work. As it was, nothing did work - not the offense, not the defense and not starting pitcher Ryan Dempster, who lasted just 2 innings.

The Cubs have suffered a pair of back-to-back postings at the hands of American League clubs. Thursday, the Baltimore Orioles pounded them 11-4 at Wrigley Field. Things figured to get only worse when the Cubs hit "the road," if you can call the South Side that.

Friday's loss dropped their record to 49-31 overall but 16-21 away from Wrigley Field.

"I've pitched well on the road," said Dempster, who is 9-3 for the season but 0-3 on the road. "Today, I didn't pitch very well.

"Everybody makes such a big deal of it because our home record is so good. If you look around the league, there are maybe four teams with a .500 or better winning percentage on the road. People don't win on the road. That's how it goes."

This one got ugly fast for the Cubs. Already down 1-0, Dempster didn't make it out of the third, when the Sox put up 7 runs, 4 on a grand slam by Nick Swisher.

The leading indicators weren't pointing upward before that, though. Piniella fielded a lineup with right fielder Kosuke Fukudome at DH, DH Daryle Ward in right field and man-without-a-position Eric Patterson in left field.

Patterson botched a single by A.J. Pierzynski into a two-base error in the third. All day long, Sox runners successfully challenged Patterson's arm. Don't look for Patterson back out there again.

"I don't think so," Piniella said. "No. I don't think so. We'll put somebody else out there in left field."

Patterson didn't run from the questions.

"I was trying to be aggressive and charge the ball," he said of the error. "I just kind of took my eye off it at the last minute. It's unfortunate. It's frustrating. You feel like those plays play a big part in the game. It just can't happen. It's unacceptable."

One theme that has been running through Piniella's talks has been the injuries that have cost the Cubs the full or partial services of Fukudome, Ward, Carlos Zambrano, Alfonso Soriano and Reed Johnson.

"We've been dealing with it for a little bit now," he said pregame. "So far we've been able to maintain. Hopefully we'll continue to. We've shown resiliency. I expect us to play well, but at the same time, we can't afford too many more of these things."

Afterward, Piniella seemed to put the injuries out of the picture.

"Look, we've just got to play through these things and do the best we can," he said. "There's nothing else we can do. Just play through them. That's all."

Edmonds tried to be realistic about it.

"As long as we've got nine bodies on the field, I think we'll be OK," he said. "Just keep going out there and playing hard and go through the rough times and keep going out there."