Irked Piniella takes media to task

Before he began talking about Friday's 12-6 loss to the Cardinals, Cubs manager Lou Piniella chided the media.

In so many words, he told them to put a cork in any talk of the Cubs celebrating a division title with champagne before it happens.

"Just a little reminder why you don't count your chickens before they're hatched, you know? A little reminder," said Piniella, who apparently was under the impression that the media had already awarded the National League Central title to the Cubs.

Piniella made it clear that he wasn't talking about his players "counting chickens," and that it was all the media's fault.

"I was talking to you all, no question," he said. "My team's handled it pretty well. The media's made it out like we've already won three games in the playoffs. Let's get there."

Piniella also didn't want to hear about any scenario's in which the Cubs clinch today.

"The scenario is we've got to win two baseball games," he said, his voice rising. "Plain and simple. The magic number is 2. Milwaukee loses two games; we win two games. Outside of that, I don't know what else to say. It's so simple. It's kindergarten stuff now."

The talk before the game was how the Cubs might celebrate had they won Friday afternoon and the Brewers lost Friday night. It sounded like the plans were low-key.

"A 'happy quiet' would be good," said shortstop Ryan Theriot. "And save the good one (for the World Series)."

Soto's injury scare: Catcher Geovany Soto went to the hospital Friday morning to have his right hand X-rayed.

The Cubs said the X-ray showed "irritation" at the top of the joint between the hand and wrist. Soto said he felt it Thursday, well before he hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning to spark a come-from-behind victory over Milwaukee.

"I felt it during my second at-bat," said Soto, a candidate for both Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player. "I took a swing. It felt funny. My next at-bat, I hit a popup to center field. It didn't pop, but it felt not normal. I kept playing. After I got home, it got a little stiff, and I told the trainers. Nothing major. All the X-rays are negative. Day by day. Hopefully, I'm up there tomorrow."

Stuck in the middle: The Cubs suddenly have problems in the middle of their bullpen.

With Chad Gaudin (sore back) still in Arizona and not ready to return soon, the Cubs had been going with rookie Jeff Samardzija as their main bridge to Carlos Marmol and Kerry Wood.

But Samardzija has given up 4 hits and 5 runs (1 earned) in his last 3 outings while talking four.

"It's obvious that we're looking for some help in that area, yes," Lou Piniella said.

It looked like veteran Bob Howry worked his way back into good graces earlier this week, but Piniella used him again in mop-up duty Friday. Samardzija has good stuff, but he's still raw.

"He's a young guy and just a couple years ago was on a football campus, a college campus at Notre Dame," Piniella said. "He came up here, and he did really well. We put a lot of expectations on him. He's only been pitching pro ball a couple years. Let's not forget that. It's not the easiest thing in the world to pitch in these type of circumstances."

Piniella talked up rookie Randy Wells, who has a pair of scoreless outings but was a starter at Class AAA Iowa before coming up this month.

The Cubs used five relievers Friday.

"We looked at a lot of it today," Piniella said.