Piniella has advice for struggling hitters

Cubs manager Lou Piniella thought about making the video room off limits to players during games. Instead, he simply suggested his struggling hitters stop obsessing about watching video of their own at bats.

Piniella called it advice drawn on his experience of 8,000 at bats in the major leagues. According to the Cubs media guide, Piniella had more like 6,000 at bats, but who's counting?

"What you need to do, truthfully, is watch the pitcher on the opposing side," Piniella said before Monday's game at Wrigley Field. "Let's say you and I are similar hitters. See how he's pitching you. That gives me an idea of how he's going to pitch me.

"At the same time, see what he's getting over. Why look for a breaking pitch if he can't get a breaking pitch over the plate? See what he's getting people out with. There are a lot of things you can focus on during the course of a ballgame. If you're up there watching tape seeing yourself pop up or ground out, you miss a lot of things that can help you."

During their 0-6 road trip to St. Louis and San Diego last week, the Cubs batted an anemic .160 while scoring 5 runs in six games.

Asked if hitters should check the video to see whet they're doing wrong at the plate, Piniella suggested the time to worry about mechanics is batting practice.

"You can't really do too much about mechanics and what went wrong during the game," he said. "What you've got to do is pick up that baseball and hit it."

Marmol excused: Reliever Carlos Marmol was not at Monday's game because his wife is scheduled to give birth this morning in New York. He's expected to be back with the team Wednesday.

Derrick Lee missed his second straight game with flu-like symptoms and was sent home long before the first pitch. Bobby Scales was scratched from the lineup because of an illness but did pinch hit.

With a thin bench, manager Lou Piniella let reliever Jose Ascanio bat with a runner on second and two outs in the fifth, then changed pitchers the following inning. He also used Carlos Zambrano as a pinch hitter with two on in the seventh, even though Mike Fontenot and Kosuke Fukudome were available.

Cub notes: Both teams wore red caps in honor of Memorial Day. - Monday's contest was the 400th night game in Cubs history. - Ryan Freel went 1-for-12 to start his Cubs career before collecting a broken-bat RBI single in the seventh. Freel was acquired from Baltimore for Joey Gathright on May 8.