Bradley: Cubs need to chill out, have fun

When it comes to the Cubs' hitting woes, Milton Bradley tried to be the voice of calm and reason Friday.

"Everybody's got to relax," Bradley said after the Cubs fell 7-4 to the Twins, right on the heels of two games in which they scored a grand total of 2 runs. "You have a ton of media here. Fans have a lot of expectations. We're supposed to just run away with the division.

"We're 21/2 games out. We're right there. Just have fun. Relax. It's hard to get me to smile on a baseball field, but I had to smile today. You can't just be taking yourself too seriously. Just chill out. Have fun. If we do that, we'll be all right."

Note that Bradley said this after a game in which he lost a ball in the sun and then tossed a ball into the stands with men on base when only the second out of an inning was recorded.

Whatever, manager Lou Piniella shook up his batting order. Ryan Theriot moved from second to seventh, and Kosuke Fukudome dropped from third to sixth.

"We're going to try a few different things and see what happens," Piniella said. "We've stayed pretty constant for 60 games or so. It's time to change things around a little bit."

The Cubs recorded 6 hits while drawing 1 walk and striking out 12 times.

Here we go again: It was about this time last year that Kosuke Fukudome began an epic slide. He was 5-for-29 on the recent road trip and 0-for-4 with 3 strikeouts Friday.

"He's starting the spin that he had last year," Lou Piniella said of the corkscrew swing Fukudome lapses into at times. "He's not staying on the ball. The swing's gotten a little longer. He needs to shorten it up and get it a little more compact and make some contact."

Soriano to second: Lou Piniella moved Alfonso Soriano to second base in the ninth inning. It was Soriano's first action at second this year. The former second baseman played one game at second last year.

"I kept Soriano (in the lineup) at second because (Micah) Hoffpauir would come up fourth in the ninth inning just in case," said Piniella, who put Hoffpauir in as a pinch hitter in the eighth. "It didn't happen, but Soriano's played second before."