Marquis could be odd-man out in playoffs

Cubs manager Lou Piniella confirmed Monday on a local sports-radio broadcast a plan to use a three-man pitching rotation for the first round of the playoffs, a decision he made after watching Jason Marquis pitch poorly again Sunday.

Before Sunday -- when Marquis gave up four runs and couldn't get out of the one inning he was assigned -- Piniella said he ''probably'' would pitch Rich Hill in Game 3 on Saturday and Marquis in Game 4 on Sunday.

Piniella sidestepped the issue after Sunday's game in Cincinnati. But when interviewed Monday morning on the ''Mike North Morning Show'' on WSCR-AM (670), Piniella said: ''We're probably going to pitch this series with three starting pitchers. I'm talking about [Carlos] Zambrano, [Ted] Lilly and Hill. If we get into Sunday, I think we'll bring Zambrano back on three days' rest, which allows us to use Lilly on his regular turn on Tuesday if there's a fifth game needed.''

Skipping Marquis -- who gave up 34 hits and 19 runs in his final 19 2/3 innings -- isn't a shocker. But if he's left off the playoff roster for the first round, that would be two years in a row for Marquis, who pitched for St. Louis last year before the Cardinals left him out of the postseason.

Doing that to a veteran who won 12 games this year is complicated by the fact he's under contract with the Cubs for two more seasons -- not to mention Piniella's famous habit of changing his mind on the run.

Zambrano, after all, pitched poorly the only time he has pitched on short rest, two weeks ago at home against the Reds. And if the Cubs lead the series 2-1 at that point, it might seem more reasonable to fall back on another plan, especially at home, where Zambrano is 6-9 with a 4.96 ERA and Marquis is 8-3 with a 4.53 ERA -- including 7 2/3 strong innings in a victory over Arizona.

The plan for a three-man rotation appears to be a shift away from the first playoff discussions Piniella and general manager Jim Hendry had Saturday. After that meeting, Hendry said he didn't anticipate a scenario in which the Cubs would open with a three-man rotation.

When the regular-season finale ended Sunday, Reds manager Pete Mackanin called Piniella to congratulate him and wish him luck in the playoffs.

''I told him, 'Lou, I think you panicked there going to your closer in the fourth,''' Mackanin cracked. In a one-inning tuneup Sunday, Ryan Dempster took over a 4-4 game in the fourth and gave up four runs.

•  •  Piniella said he plans to talk to Alfonso Soriano, a former 40-40 man, about whether the right quadriceps he hurt in August is strong enough now to use his speed more in the playoffs.

•  •  Derrek Lee, whose last playoff team was the 2003 Marlins squad that beat the Cubs and went on to win the World Series, on making the playoffs: ''We thought we were going to make it there in '04 [after being traded to the Cubs]. We had a really good team, and it just didn't work out. That's why I say you never take getting into the postseason for granted. ... You really try to just enjoy it because you don't know how many times you're going to get there.''