Byrd explains All-Star smiles

On the one-week anniversary of his first All-Star Game appearance, center fielder Marlon Byrd explained why he and Detroit reliever Jose Valverde shared secret smiles during his at-bat.

"I've known him since 2001 when we were playing in the AA All-Star Game together," Byrd said. "Every year he says he's going to throw me split-fingers to try to get me out."

But the past two seasons when Byrd (then with Texas) faced Valverde in interleague play, the then-Houston closer fed him nothing but fastballs.

Not so when they met up in the ninth inning of last week's All-Star Game.

"He started throwing split-fingers and I realized it was going to be one of those unhittable nights," Byrd said. "He threw one that almost hit me and I tried to stick my knee out. I looked at him and started smiling.

"And the competitiveness he has - the fire he shows on the mound - I had to look and see if he was going to smile back at me. I made him crack a smile. It was just a fun moment."

In the end, Byrd was Valverde's third straight strikeout victim.

Not quite: As Ryan Dempster climbed out of the Cubs dugout to take batting practice Tuesday afternoon, Ron Santo offered some advice.

"Get 2 hits tonight," Santo said. Dempster nodded his approval, but modified the goal.

"Four 'ABs,' " he replied.

Alas, Dempster merited just 1 at-bat against Houston as his lack of control limited him to a season-low 5 innings and cost him a season-high 7 runs.

Three of those 7 runs were unearned thanks to Ryan Theriot's second-inning throwing error, but Dempster wasn't blameless. For the second time this season, he suffered an inverted strikeout-to-walk ratio as he posted just 1 strikeout versus 4 walks.

"I obviously wasn't happy with the way I threw the ball, but who cares?" Dempster said. "We won the game and we went out there and put up 13 uninterrupted runs."

Bullpen blip: As promised, Cubs general manager Jim Hendry made a roster move to fortify the Cubs' taxed bullpen. Rookie Jeff Stevens returned for his third tour this season after spending the last two weeks at Class AAA Iowa.

Mitch Adkins, 24, returned to Iowa after allowing 5 runs in 3 appearances with the Cubs.