Piniella smiling through tight NL Central race

What, Lou worry?

Even with his team sputtering as it approaches such a critical week in the chase for the National League Central title, Cubs manager Lou Piniella was loose and smiling Monday -- and that was before his team demolished the St. Louis Cardinals 12-3 at Wrigley field.

"In baseball you could worry every day, so I'm not worried about anything," Piniella said. "Let's just go out and play and try to win some baseball games, the heck with all the worrying.

"What's going to worry me? We're doing the best we can, that's all we can do, nothing more, nothing less. Either you win or you lose, it's a simple thing. As long as you go out there and give it your best, nobody's going to complain about anything."

If Piniella hadn't been worried about his starting pitching of late, maybe he should have.

But Ted Lilly turned in another strong start against the Cardinals, allowing only 3 runs on 5 hits in 7 innings with 7 strikeouts and no walks.

"The starting pitching really hasn't been all that great here the last two weeks or so," the Cubs' skipper admitted. "We've had some sporadic work where we get a good game.

"The guys that have pitched the best are Lilly and (Jason) Marquis. We need a little more consistency."

Lilly's 15th victory of the season Monday matched his career-high total. It also made him 9-3 at home.

He is now one of only three Cubs left-handers in the last 50 years to win at least nine games at Wrigley Field, joining Dick Ellsworth and Ken Holtzman.

"He's been huge for us," first baseman Derrek Lee said. "He's been there right behind 'Z' (Carlos Zambrano), lights out, to give us that 1-2 punch. That's really big for a team."

It was the first of five games against the Cardinals this week. The teams start a four-game series at Busch Stadium on Friday.

"We needed this win bad," Lee said. "Losing three out of four to L.A., and two out of three to Pittsburgh, we needed to really get this win and go out on the road with some momentum."

The Brewers, meanwhile, are in Pittsburgh through Wednesday and then have a weekend series at home against Cincinnati while the Cubs and Cardinals are knocking heads.

"This is a big advantage for Milwaukee with the two teams challenging them playing each other," Piniella said.