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HOUSTON – Cubs bench coach Jamie Quirk is back in the manager saddle again, he just might not get as much attention this time.

Quirk was managing Wednesday while Dale Sveum attended the high-school graduation of his son in Arizona, five days after he took over midgame when Sveum was ejected.

That game on Friday turned out to be Kerry Wood’s farewell and Quirk found himself right in the middle of the moment.

The plan was simple: Get Wood in one last game in a spot he is normally used and afterward the right-hander would walk off into the sunset. If it didn’t happen Friday then fine, but it was expected to happen soon.

It did happen Friday, though, and Quirk ended up doing a little improvising. He first thought he would use Wood for consecutive right-handed batters. But then he also though that since the pitcher’s spot was due up sixth after that half inning he might even let Wood get those two outs and go back for more the next inning.

Then came Wood’s three-pitch strikeout to the White Sox’s Dayan Viciedo, with the final strike coming on Wood’s patented curveball, and a new plan was hatched.

“The right-hander was up who had real poor numbers against left-handed pitching and we had (James) Russell ready so I just went out and said, ‘Let’s do it right now,” Quirk said. “It was fun. I was excited that I got to be the guy. I was definitely not about me by any means but it was fun to be the guy.”

Quirk said he did have one regret.

“When I went to take him out he handed me the ball,” Quirk said. “We got the ball for him but I wish I would have said, ‘No, you take the ball on in.’ I didn’t think about that at the time but it worked out well.”

Through all the drama, Quirk was careful not to lose sight what was also important.

“We still had a ballgame,” Quirk said. “I knew I wasn’t hurting our chances to win by bringing in Russell to face the right-hander because the right-hander did not hit lefties well. So I wasn’t putting the game in jeopardy. It was still a one-run game. I didn’t want to do that. If it was in jeopardy I would have him face the other right-hander and gone on with the other plan. It was just right to do it at that time.”

HOUSTON -- Dale Sveum will not manage the Cubs on Wednesday as he attends the high school graduation of his son in Arizona.

“Almost an empty-nester,” Sveum said. “Nothing at home.”

With the Cubs on a seven-game losing streak, Sveum hoped for a convincing victory Tuesday so he can leave on a positive note and not have the worry of the slide while he is supposed to be enjoying a festive occasion.

“It’s hard,” Sveum said about leaving the club. “He’ll be graduating (at game time) so most of that part I’m going to have to be looking on my phone and won’t be able to watch the game because I’ll be at the graduation.”

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MILWAUKEE -- Despite a bullpen that has yet to gain any traction, manager Dale Sveum still trusted his relievers with the final four innings Sunday.

What looked like a questionable move when he pinch hit for Jeff Samardzija in the sixth inning, paid off handsomely when that hitter, Reed Johnson, hit a home run and the offense poured it on late with base hits.

Samardzija had given up little and was locked in a 1-1 tie with Milwaukee Brewers starter Marco Estrada when it was his turn to lead off the sixth inning.

Samardzija was even headed to the bat rack when he noticed that Sveum had other plans.

“They caught me pretty quick there coming down the dugout,” Samardzija said. “But when you have guys like Reed and them to pinch hit for you, especially with the top of the lineup coming up it’s the way it goes sometimes.”

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CHICAGO -- It hasn’t been a week since Carlos Marmol was pulled from his closer role, but manager Dale Sveum suggested Monday that the right-hander could get the job back, at least temporarily.

With new closer Rafael Dolis used for two innings on Sunday, as well as pitching in four of the last five games, Sveum was giving his right-hander a much-deserved night off.

With four left-handed hitters in the Braves’ lineup, Sveum could go with left-hander James Russell at closer if necessary. But there is always Marmol.

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CINCINNATI -- The Chicago Cubs might be third in stolen bases in the National League and dead last in home runs, but that doesn’t mean there is a correlation in the numbers.

Manager Dale Sveum shot down a theory that the Cubs are running more to compensate for the fact that they don’t have much power.

“I think it’s very important to put pressure on the other team when you can and take advantage of situations to stay out of double plays,” Sveum said. “Slugging percentage does you no good if the guy ahead of the guy who hits the double just hit into a double play. Then you hit the double with two outs and nobody on.

“It doesn’t make any sense when you can take advantage of a situation to just sit there and say ‘I don’t want to run into an out.’”

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CHICAGO -- The Cincinnati Reds might use their two dominating left-handed relievers late in games, but those arms can have an effect in the middle of a contest too.

Take the move made Sunday by Cubs manager Dale Sveum, who raised more than a few eyebrows when he removed one of the team’s best hitters and power threats following the fifth inning. The move came in a tie game the Cubs would eventually lose 4-3.

After Bryan LaHair used his effective left-handed swing to drive in a run for the Cubs in the fifth, he was replaced by Joe Mather on defense. Mather had just batted for pitcher Randy Wells and on a double switch, reliever Rodrigo Lopez went into LaHair’s old spot.

But Mather could also play left field and Alfonso Soriano did make the last out in the fifth inning. Still, Sveum removed LaHair since lefties Aroldis Chapman and Sean Marshall were looming in the Reds bullpen.

“It was probably going to be the last meaningful at-bat he was going to get off a right-hander,” Sveum said. “If they had two right-handers, setup guy and a closer, I wouldn’t be double switching for LaHair there.”

As it turned out, Soriano stayed in the game and struck out with one out and the bases loaded in the seventh inning. It was the second time he was retired with the bases loaded in the game after grounding into a force out to end the third inning.

Making matters even harder to take is the fact that Marshall used to be Cubs property, but his trade to the Reds this offseason played right into Cincinnati’s hands Sunday.

LaHair said he understood the switch and had no problem with it, but that didn’t mean he wanted to find himself in the dugout in the late innings, even with some intimidating lefties at the Reds’ disposal.

“I don’t think about that,” LaHair said when asked if he took stock in the left-handers yet to be used. “I’m not worried about lefties. I haven’t had success early, but lefties don’t scare me.”

LaHair is hitless in just six at-bats against left-handers this season, striking out five of those times.

CHICAGO -- The offense rallied to tie it in the middle innings Saturday, but the Chicago Cubs bullpen let it get away in a 4-3 defeat to the Cincinnati Reds.

How it happened: Making his first start of the season, Randy Wells worked his way in and out of trouble, managing to give up just two runs over five innings. The offense couldn’t build on its momentum from Saturday, though, and scored just twice, with one of the runs coming after an errant wild pickoff throw. Alfonso Soriano twice made outs with the bases loaded. Starlin Castro was hit in the elbow by a pitch but remained in the game after a visit from the medical staff and later hit a triple in the ninth inning.

What it means: Wells’ five innings means the bullpen worked another four innings on Sunday as it awaits some reinforcement. The fact that Scott Maine pitched 1 2/3 innings Sunday, two days after throwing an inning makes it likely that he is guy on his way back to Iowa as right-hander Michael Bowden gets ready to join the roster Monday. When it comes to innings pitched, though, the Cubs entered Sunday with 42 2/3 innings from its relievers, still in the bottom third among teams in all of baseball.

Outside the box: Manager Dale Sveum made a curious double-switch to start the sixth inning. Joe Mather remained in the game after batting for Wells. But instead of taking the spot of Soriano, who made the last out in the bottom of the fifth, Sveum had Mather replace Bryan LaHair at first base. Mather can play both positions. LaHair had just driven a run in the fifth with a single and improved his batting average to .361. Soriano, who is barely batting over .200, struck out with one out and the bases loaded in the seventh inning.

Off beat: Speed can be a menace on the baseball field and Tony Campana proved to be a particular issue for Reds pitcher Johnny Cueto. After an infield single in the first inning, Campana coaxed Cueto into a balk. In the third inning Cueto rushed on Campana’s sacrifice bunt back up the box, fumbled the ball and couldn’t get the throw to first base in time. Campana nearly reached base a third consecutive time when Cueto bobbled a comebacker, but his throw to first base was just in time. The call still drew an argument from Sveum with first-base umpire Jerry Meals.

Up next: Cubs right-hander Matt Garza (1-1, 3.66 ERA) will take the mound Monday in the opener of a three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals. St. Louis will counter with left-hander Jamie Garcia in the 7 p.m. start from Wrigley Field.

CHICAGO -- Buck Showalter has seen the managing side of baseball change over the past 20 years to the point where big market clubs like the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs have hired new dug-out bosses with little or no experience.

“It’s still the same game between the lines,” the Orioles manager said before his team took on the White Sox on Wednesday night. “As a manager it is still about us as managers adjusting to the players. It might not have been that way in the 1950s or 60s but that’s the game from a coaching standpoint. With the Internet and instant reporting, a manager has to be aware of the reflection that your words carry to the media and the players.”

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MIAMI -- On the day he returned from a team-imposed five-game suspension, Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen said Tuesday he will now be on an indefinite self-imposed probation.

Meeting the media for the first time since he apologized to the Cuban American community for praising Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's ability to stay in power for so long, the former longtime Chicago White Sox player and manager continued to say he is sorry.

"I put myself on probation ... me, nobody else," Guillen said. "It's probation about growing up and being better, and be careful to not trust too many people. That was my problem."

There were no reports of any major demonstrations outside of the new Marlins Park, located in a Miami neighborhood known as Little Havana. The lack of a major protest didn't make Guillen any less sorry for the pain caused by his comments.

"I don't expect everybody to be 100 percent on board with me. I don't," Guillen said. "That's the way life should be. But what I (talked) about for 40 to 50 minutes last week (during his apology) was from the bottom of my heart. I meant every word I said."

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ST. LOUIS -- Chicago Cubs players won’t be required to be in the dugout to watch the St. Louis Cardinals get their World Series rings on Saturday, but it will be strongly encouraged.

During their home opener Friday, Cardinals players were paraded into the stadium one by one in their own vehicle. They left the ring presentation for Saturday morning to extend the weekend celebration of their title last season.

Cubs manager Dale Sveum, who has earned World Series rings with the New York Yankees (as a player) and the Boston Red Sox (as a coach), considers the ring ceremony in any of the four major sports to be a special day and one that can draw emotions from both dugouts.

Plus, the Cubs won’t just be out in the dugout to watch. Their first base coach, Dave McKay, will be getting his ring after leaving the Cardinals this offseason.

“We’ll be out there; we have one of our own getting one,” Sveum said. “I think it’s very important for everybody to be out there and to watch and respect what the Cardinals did last year as well as Dave McKay getting his ring as well.”

CHICAGO – If the scouting report s just the slightest bit off this week against the Milwaukee Brewers, all eyes will point toward manager Dale Sveum.

“I did most of it to tell you the truth,” the former Brewers hitting coach said before Monday’s game. “It was pretty easy to go over the scouting report and might have gave some people a series off that way because I was able to handle the whole deal.”

The Brewers lost Prince Fielder this offseason, of course, and are trying to replace at least some of his offense with Aramis Ramirez. But Sveum is familiar with just about everybody else in the lineup. He even knows Fielder’s replacement at first base Mat Gamel.

Yet while many of the faces are the same, Sveum suspects they could handle their duties much differently than they did with Fielder’s imposing presence in the center of the lineup.

“You’re taking the one big left-handed bat out of a lineup that has been a staple there for six years or whatever,” Sveum said. “And Matt Gamble is very capable of doing a lot of good things but there is only one Prince Fielder too. The threat that that guy brings every day and to hit behind Braun all that time is huge for Braun too. But they replace him with Aramis Ramirez.”

Sveum actually dared to say the Brewers lineup will be easier to handle, which isn’t as much of a slight to Ramirez as it sounded once he explained himself.

“It just becomes a little easier, not that the guys can’t put up the numbers, but it’s easier to go through more right-handed hitters than it is left-handed hitters,” Sveum said.

While it will remain odd for Sveum to be in the opposite dugout while watching the Brewers on the field, he already dealt with some of that awkwardness during spring training.

Ultimately what becomes most important is whether or not Sveum can use his knowledge of the Brewers personnel and use it against them.

“I think it definitely gives you an edge but the bottom line is you still have to make your pitches,” Sveum said. “Although through the video equipment everybody has now you get to know people just as well as I do.

“Now I know the insights and the mental part of people and what the video doesn’t show, I think that’s going to benefit us. [But] you still have to execute the pitches, execute the plan and the sequence of the pitches when you know how it can all work and when a guy’s vulnerable.”

MESA, Ariz. -- So far so good on the Dale Sveum era, as everybody from upper management to the players have lauded the spring training camp put together by the new Cubs manager.

It’s only spring training of course, but if first impressions are important, and if sticking to your word matters, then Sveum has started his Cubs tenure on the right track.

It was in the middle of camp when general manager Jed Hoyer admitted that part of what sold everybody on Sveum was that spring training set the tone, and it shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Players worked longer this spring, they were required to pay attention to detail instead of just going through the motions and everything was done on precision timing that left little downtime.

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MESA, Ariz. -- Sunday marked the start of a week when the Chicago Cubs will give answers to some looming Opening Day questions.

From Las Vegas, where the Cubs are playing a pair of split-squad games against the Texas Rangers this weekend, manager Dale Sveum said he expects to name his Opening Day starter after Ryan Dempster and Matt Garza each make one more outing.

Garza is lined up for Opening Day if he starts every fifth day, but Dempster has been pitching one day earlier than Garza the way the rotation is laid out now. Dempster is the favorite to get the Opening Day nod, just as he did last year.

Not long after the starting pitcher for the first game of the season is named, Sveum said he will probably start using a lineup very similar to the one he plans on using April 5 in the opener against the Washington Nationals at Wrigley Field.

Sveum said he also wants to use something close to a regular-season lineup over the last 10 days of the Cactus League schedule. Since the final Cactus League game is April 3, that regular lineup should start showing up next weekend.

The biggest lineup question is where Alfonso Soriano bats. Sveum has suggested it will be in the third, fourth or fifth spot. Also, without a clear-cut No. 2 hitter, who will Sveum use to follow the leadoff man? Starlin Castro or even Geovany Soto could end up with the role. Castro has spent a lot of time in the No. 3 hole since Cactus League games began.

“As an offense you start doing things you wouldn’t do early in spring, sacrifice bunting, using the bullpen the way we’re going to use it during the season, mixing and matching in the bullpen,” Sveum said earlier this week. “That’s when all that starts with about 10 days left.”

MESA, Ariz. -- By all accounts, Chicago Cubs manager Dale Sveum and Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker really do like each other.

But Sveum said Monday that he has no intention to seek out advice from former Cubs managers on what he is getting into with his new job. And Baker said he probably wouldn’t give him the advice anyway.

No hard feelings, that’s just how it works with division rivals.

“I can’t tell him anything; we’re trying to beat him,” Baker said before his Reds faced the Cubs. “I like Dale but we’re still competitors, you know what I mean? The better they do the harder it will make it on us. I’ve got a red uniform on now, not a blue one. I wish Dale well, just not against us.”

Not that Sveum was asked about Baker’s comment, but he probably wouldn’t have it any other way.

“There is nothing I don’t know,” Sveum said. “Obviously we all know that it’s different. There’s more media, there’s more scrutinizing. There will be the second guessing of everything. It’s not like I have never been in, or played in a big market before. You know all that goes on. I was in Boston [coaching] for two years with [Terry] Francona so I saw it and know what goes on in those places.”

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MESA, Ariz. -- Matt Garza sees a happier bunch of a campers this spring compared to last year, his first season with the Cubs, and he credits manager Dale Sveum for the changes.

“[He’s] blue-collar. That’s what you need here,” Garza said. “I’ve said that over and over again. We don’t work 2 to 11, we work 9 to 5. You have to get up and put in your work like a blue-collar worker. That’s the way Cubs baseball should be and that’s what I think it’s going to be.”

Garza thought that last year’s team didn't always respond under manager Mike Quade.

“Last year was a little tough with the guy in charge because he was always going a mile a minute all the time and really didn’t stop. Dale is more of a laid back guy … not easy going, but [he] slows things down. I try to get him to where I am and my intensity level. I want to show him my competitive level and that I know how to draw the line.”

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