Ward doing what he can to get back

First baseman Daryle Ward took batting practice Tuesday for the first time since going on the disabled list May 18 with a bulging disc in his lower back.

"It went fine, but I just have to keep working on my strength," Ward said after hitting. "It's not as easy as I thought it was going to be."

Neither the Cubs nor Ward knows when he will be able to come off the DL. His stint has been backdated to May 14, but it's likely he'll be out longer than the 15 days.

Ward had an epidural injection last week, and he said that helped.

"There's no more tightness in my butt-cheek muscle," he said. "That's what I was mainly worried about. It's not that I was having an issue with my back. I have it more with tightness in my hip flexor and my glute. I have to do so much stretching."

The first slump: Right fielder Kosuke Fukudome entered Tuesday in an 0-for-9 slump. For the first time this year, his batting average slipped under the .300 mark, to .294. Manager Lou Piniella was asked if it's a matter of adjustments.

"I don't know," Piniella said. "I don't know if it's adjustments. How about it's just good pitching, too? This kid that pitched yesterday (the Dodgers' Chad Billingsley) threw the ball pretty well. In Pittsburgh, I'm sure it wasn't a party for him with all that left-hand pitching over there. He's still learning the league."

Piniella said he's not worried.

"Don't look too far into this," he said. "He's going to hit. And he's just in a little bit of a rut now. We've had a few people here during the course of the first two months that we've played have some struggles. It's normal. Everybody's human. But he's a good professional hitter, and he'll be just fine."

Tuesday also was Fukudome bobblehead night.

No timetable: If it sounds like center fielder Jim Edmonds is on a short timetable with the Cubs, Lou Piniella is doing his best to make it not sound that way.

"I don't have time limits," the manager said. "The only problem I have here as a manager is that I've got a young man named (Micah) Hoffpauir. I want to see what he can do, also. It creates a little bit of a situation for us or for me as a manager.

"Outside of that, there's no timetable on anything. This kid's had two good springs for us. He's hit the ball well. And we've got the luxury of having him here while Daryle Ward's on the DL. We'd like to have a little clarification there, also."

Back on subject, Piniella hesitated on Edmonds.

"Probably a little early," he said of judging Edmonds. "I can't lend any more to this. Let's hope that … it would be beneficial to us for Jim to swing the bat well. He's had a heck of a career. He's played in winning situations."