Sore back idles Wood

On a day when the Cubs got plenty of power out of the bullpen from Carlos Marmol, Jeff Samardzija and Bob Howry, one big arm was missing.

Following Friday's 3-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in 11 innings, manager Lou Piniella confessed Kerry Wood was unavailable to pitch because of a sore back.

"He's OK, but he wasn't available," Piniella said.

Just when it appeared as if Piniella wasn't going to say why, he told reporters that Wood's back was bothering him and that it had nothing to do with the blister on his pitching finger that had him on the disabled list from July 11 until last Tuesday.

Wood's status for today's game against the Cardinals was left up in the air.

"We'll see when he comes to the ballpark," Piniella said.

Wood pitched a scoreless inning in Tuesday's win over Houston, then wasn't used Wednesday.

Into the fire: Rookie Jeff Samardzija was thrown into the heat of a pennant race again on Friday, entering a 2-2 game in the ninth, and worked 2 scoreless innings.

Samardzija faced Albert Pujols in the 10th and allowed a two-out single. He then picked off Pujols trying to steal second on a delayed attempt.

"He showed a lot of poise when Albert tried to steal second base," Lou Piniella said. "He just stepped off and cooly threw the ball over there."

Samardzija admitted he didn't see Pujols running until his teammates yelled.

For Samardzija, he said facing Pujols wasn't as intimidating as pitching to Barry Bonds in spring training last year.

"I don't really remember the at-bat," Samardzija said. "I was just trying not to hit him because he's right on top of the plate. I figured after you face Barry Bonds, anything after that is kind of not the same."

No changes: Despite another off-day on Monday, Lou Piniella said there would be no juggling of the starting rotation for next week's six-game road trip to Atlanta and Florida.

Rich Harden goes Tuesday against the Marlins followed by Jason Marquis, Ted Lilly, Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster and Harden again.

"We're just staying right in rotation," Piniella said.

Strong recovery: After going 1-4 coming out of the all-star break, the Cubs recovered nicely to post a 12-8 mark from the break through their first off-day in 20 days on Thursday.

Only Colorado with 13 victories had more wins than the Cubs since the all-star break going into the weekend.

"We played well," Piniella said. "I knew it wasn't going to be an easy stretch, but we got through it OK."

Minor matter: Angel Guzman gave up 1 run on 1 hit and struck out four in 3 innings in his second rehab start for Class A Daytona on Thursday.