Lou's message loud, clear in any language

Lou Piniella's body language may have been subtle, but his words were not.

As he relaxed in the Cubs' dugout a couple of hours before Sunday night's pounding of St. Louis, Piniella crossed his legs, rested comfortably against the bench and, without batting an eye, laid the lumber to Kosuke Fukudome.

The 64-year-old Cubs manager is far past the time in his career when he cares about the feelings of any player, or worries about how they might react to managerial criticism.

He's also a master of knowing when to kick a player in the pants through the media if coddling doesn't work, and a swift punt is what Fukudome got Sunday.

"We need him to start swinging the bat,'' Piniella said of Fukudome, who went 0-for-4 and is hitting .217 in his last 39 games, including .107 on the homestand. "He's not tired. He's just not hitting.

"The bottom line is results. I've got to find lineups that produce runs, and a guy like Reed Johnson is producing runs.''

Fukudome is mired, now, in a little difficulty, but even if Piniella's message gets lost in translation, those without need for an interpreter will also get Piniella's point.

If he can threaten the team's $48 million rookie, and perhaps even bench GM Jim Hendry's prized free-agent signing, Piniella won't be afraid to do it to anyone on the club.

"I'm not going to start hitting just because he says something like that,'' said a grinning Fukudome, when informed postgame of Piniella's comments. "It doesn't bother me at all (that he told the media first).

"Every manager's different, but I have seen that happen in Japan, too.''

When the pregame conversation turned to Carlos Zambrano, and a query offered the big hurler reasons to be less than sound this time of year, Piniella could have been talking about Fukudome when he said Zambrano just hasn't been very good the last couple of times out.

"All we do is look for excuses,'' Piniella chuckled. "Not enough rest, too much rest, in-between rest. That's not the problem. Let's not try to find excuses for everyone.''

While denying he's looking to motivate a club sitting on a big lead by creating some fear, or perhaps competition, Piniella did say that he's not going to be overly patient with anyone.

"I'm trying to win baseball games,'' Piniella said, doing his best Ozzie Guillen impersonation. "I'm the manager, and I'll do what I need to do.''

Batting second Sunday night, Fukudome hit into a double play his first time up, fouled out in the fourth, and had trouble getting a sacrifice bunt down in the sixth before grounding weakly in front of the plate, as Alfonso Soriano moved up a base.

"I'm doing whatever I can,'' Fukudome said, "to make adjustments.''

He hit the ball hard in the seventh while grounding back to the mound, but that won't be enough to keep him in the lineup this week if he doesn't get on base.

"He hit a couple balls hard,'' said Piniella, who mentioned that Soriano missed a hit-and-run sign during Fukudome's first at-bat. "He does such a good job defensively in right field that you hate to take him out of the lineup.

"We'll give him every opportunity, but we need him to hit.''

Despite the right fielder's struggles, the Cubs went 6-3 on the homestand and head south on a positive note.

And let's face it, the Cubs have little to fear in this dreadful National League, as the Cardinals proved again Sunday.

Merely pretenders this year, though deserving full credit for hanging around this long with what professes to be a major-league pitching staff, they watched the fragile Chris Carpenter leave another game with injury, in only his third start since April Fool's Day 2007.

And the Cardinals' defense gave the Cubs roughly seven outs in the sixth inning when they scored 5 runs to put the game away, giving 41,268 all they needed to cheer.

All was well in Wrigleyville, with the possible exception, perhaps, of in Kosuke Fukudome's residence.

"We don't think we're gonna win the pennant,'' said starter and winner Ryan Dempster. "We know we are.''

No wonder Lou Piniella's trying to stir it up.

brozner@dailyherald.com