Family matter takes Ramirez away from team

SAN FRANCISCO - The Cubs will be without third baseman Aramis Ramirez for the first three games of their series with the Giants.

The club has excused Ramirez to go home to the Dominican Republic to tend to a family matter.

"Boy, the timing's not good for us, but what can you do?" said manager Lou Piniella.

With Ramirez gone, Piniella will play Mark DeRosa at third base. Matt Murton got the start in left field Monday night against lefty Barry Zito. The Giants will throw righties at the Cubs the next two nights, meaning Daryle Ward is likely to play left field.

Ramirez was 0-for-13 in the three-game sweep at the hands of the White Sox over the weekend.

Feeling ambushed: Lou Piniella hasn't heard about a fine yet for getting tossed out of Sunday's game for arguing a checked-swing call. Piniella thought the Sox' Joe Crede went around on a pitch in the second inning and came out to make his point with first-base umpire Chad Fairchild. At that time, home-plate umpire Rob Drake threw Piniella out of the game when he wasn't looking.

"I was talking to the first-base umpire about the checked swing, and I got ambushed from behind," Piniella said. "Then I got my money's worth, I think. Probably not. This is a minor thing. I was talking to the first-base umpire about the checked swing, and he said, 'You can't be the field.' I was going back to the dugout, and the other guy ambushed me. What's his name, Drake? Rob Drake? I didn't even know I was run until he told me to get off the field. What are you going to do?"

Piniella said Fairchild was going to let him have his say. He then added another dig at Drake.

"Truthfully, he (Drake) didn't need any help on that," he said of the checked-swing appeal Drake sought. "When I saw it on replay, it was even a little more flagrant (of a swing) than I thought it was from seeing it in the dugout.

"You know what's amazing? Umpires make mistakes sometimes, and when you question them, you end up paying the consequences. You can't argue anymore. I got a little frustration out. It's over. They're still my buddies."

Reed ready: Outfielder Reed Johnson took part in all drills Monday and says he's ready to come off the disabled list Thursday for the series finale. Johnson is out with back spasms. If anything, he says he needs to keep on top of his maintenance work, especially after having surgery last year.

"I'm ready to go," he said. "I normally do back extensions, and that usually keeps me out of trouble. I haven't been doing a whole lot of them lately because everything had been running so smooth. That's probably why I had a little flare-up. I'm learning more and more every day about how I've got to take care of this thing the rest of my career. Hopefully, we don't have another flare-up. We'll attack it now."