Piniella says Cubs' biggest strengths are pitching and defense

ATLANTA - You might be surprised to find out what kind of Cubs team Lou Piniella thinks he's managing.

"To me, we're a pitching-defense oriented team that relies on just enough hitting," Piniella said Tuesday. "That's the way I view my team. So it's important for us to play good defense. And you can see that Cardinals series, we pitched well, and we played very well defensively. And we won two out of three games. I think that's a little microcosm of our season."

That's interesting from a manager whose team entered Tuesday leading the National League in batting average, runs scored, total bases, RBI, walks, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

"You look at our team, and you look at where we've scored the most runs in the National League," Piniella said. "But consistently, there's a gap between a lot of scoring and too little scoring. So we need to play good defense, and we need to get good pitching. And that's our formula."

The Cubs have outscored their opponents 627-488, and they have the best record in the NL, at 71-47. They're also 16-17 in 1-run decisions and 11-13 in 2-run decisions.

Piniella had no explanation for the "gap" he talked about.

"I don't know," he said. "But I do know that for us, the right formula is good solid pitching, good solid defense and timely hitting.

"We get into these swings where we swing the bats really, really well and put some runs on the board and make it look relatively comfortable, and then we get into these other streaks where everything's a struggle because we don't score enough runs. But one thing is for sure: Your defense should be constant. And one of the things that I really like about this team is we started off rather slowly, and we're picking up steam as far as plays are concerned."

Pitching plans: With Tuesday night's game being rained out, the Cubs and Braves will play a day-night doubleheader today, with games at noon and 6 CDT. It'll be the Cubs' first doubleheader this year.

Jason Marquis, who was supposed to pitch tonight, will work the day game against the Braves' Charlie Morton.

Rich Harden, the Cubs' scheduled starter for Tuesday, will work at against Jorge Campillo.

Lou Piniella was fretting about a rainout because he said it causes a problem for Sunday's series finale in Florida. It's possible lefty Sean Marshall could start Sunday. The Cubs' most effective pitcher at Class AAA Iowa has been Mitch Atkins. He last pitched Saturday.

Wood update: Lou Piniella said he'll likely give Kerry Wood one more appearance as a setup man before allowing Wood to close games. Wood had back problems last Friday, and he pitched the eighth inning Sunday.

"We're going to give him one more tightener," Piniella said. "He didn't throw too many breaking balls the other day. Kerry basically feels that he's ready. You know what? He probably is. But I think we give him one more tightener, and then we put him back into the closer's role."

That could change for today's doubleheader.

Simply angelic: Rehabbing righty Angel Guzman (elbow) was scheduled to pitch Tuesday for Class AA Tennessee. The Cubs are not ruling Guzman out for September.