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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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CHICAGO -- It was another typical 2012 Wrigley Field crowd Sunday and a typical Chicago Cubs effort -- decent but with conspicuous bare patches.

While the Chicago White Sox headed south with some momentum following their three-game sweep in the first of two crosstown series, the Cubs had simply notched their sixth straight loss, their fans left with the same gnawing emptiness they are expected to tolerate for the unforeseeable future.

There are no real surprises here that in late-ish May, the Cubs are scraping the bottom of the National League Central with one of the worst records in baseball. We knew it was going to be this way, didn't we? But after being handled as easily as the White Sox made it look this weekend, you get the feeling that Cubs fans, still showing up in respectable if not sellout numbers, did not necessarily think it would feel quite this bad quite this soon.

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CHICAGO -- A sixth consecutive defeat, a sweep by the cross-town Chicago White Sox and the first shutout of the season all have Chicago Cubs manager Dale Sveum working on the details of a lineup change for his last-place club.

Sveum didn’t reveal too much after Sunday’s 6-0 defeat other than saying that changes are expected to happen to the top three spots in the order. That’s where David DeJesus, Tony Campana and Starlin Castro have resided most of the season, in that order.

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CHICAGO -- Chicago White Sox pitcher Philip Humber and Chicago Cubs first baseman Bryan LaHair disagreed Friday whether Humber intended to throw at LaHair in retaliation for White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko being hit by a pitch.

Konerko was hit in the head by a splitter from Cubs starter Jeff Samardzija in the top of the third inning. Konerko suffered a small laceration above his eye and swelling and was taken to the hospital for testing. He did not return to the game.

After pitching to Samardzija and three other Cubs hitters in the bottom of the third, Humber’s first pitch to LaHair in the bottom of the fourth, a high fastball, soared behind LaHair’s head. The pitch resulted in home plate umpire Tim Timmons issuing warnings to both dugouts.

“That just got away from me,” Humber said. “It’s one of those things that happens during the game.”
LaHair didn’t see the pitch the same way.

“Definitely felt like it was intentional,” LaHair said. “They waited a whole inning and then the first pitch was right at my head. I'm all right with getting hit and stuff like that, I understand, but when you start getting around people's heads that can be scary. It is what it is. Nothing happened. I didn't get hurt or anything so move on from it.

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CHICAGO -- Chicago Cubs manager Dale Sveum lasted just five innings in his first Cubs-White Sox game Friday when he was ejected by third-base umpire Marty Foster.

Sveum was arguing after David DeJesus was pushed off the bag by White Sox second baseman Gordon Beckham and called out. DeJesus appeared to have legged out a double when Beckham fell into him with the ball and tagged him.

Sveum argued, to no avail. It was the second time Sveum had been ejected this season.

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 Cubs president Theo Epstein has a lot on his table these days, but he did have time to talk about how pleased he has been with his new manager and coaching staff.

Although the Cubs have been slow out of the gate, manager Dale Sveum and his group of coaches have been getting rave reviews from players and executives alike.

"With Dale and the coaches the amount of preparation, hard work and attention to detail is as good as it gets," Epstein said. “They deserve a lot of credit for how smoothly things have gone and hopefully results follow."

There is a feeling that the Cubs have assembled a solid braintrust to guide the team into the future. The Cubs are still under .500 at 13-18, but they've just won back-to-back series against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves.

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CHICAGO -- One day after Chicago Cubs reliever Kerry Wood tossed his glove and his cap into the crowd after a rough outing, manager Dale Sveum said it was not ideal behavior.

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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 – Manager Dale Sveum has given Carlos Marmol as much rope as possible, it only seems that the Chicago Cubs closer gets more and more entangled in it.

Or is that the former Cubs closer?

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CINCINNATI -- Chicago Cubs fans loaded with optimism saw a 1-2-3 ninth-inning save from Carlos Marmol on Wednesday night.

The cynical, less optimistic of the following saw him unnecessarily go to a full count to the leadoff batter and then allow a fly ball to the warning track on the second batter.

If there is a lack of trust when it comes to Marmol, it’s only because the right-hander has brought it upon himself. His 10 blown saves last year led into some shaky moments this spring and some more unsightly outings this season.

But manager Dale Sveum is sticking with his guy. The belief is that if Marmol gets some consistent work he can stay sharp. He has had just four save opportunities this season, converting two of them. He is also 0-1 with a 5.19 ERA.

“Strikes; just throw strikes,” Sveum said when asked if he sees a difference in Marmol now. “Whatever pitch he’s going to use, you just have to throw strikes, keep people off base. We all know going in it’s one of those things we have to deal with. His stuff is good enough, but you have to throw strikes to keep people off the bases.”

Sveum wants Marmol to trust in his fastball more instead of the slider. The right-hander has tried to oblige, throwing fastballs in just over 50 percent of his pitches this season. That’s up from last year when he was barely over 30 percent with his fastballs.

Does Sveum want Marmol’s fastball percentage to be even higher?

“Yeah,” Sveum said. “And I would like it to be in the strike zone.”

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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CINCINNATI -- At first manager Dale Sveum was confused regarding an inquiry about the Chicago Cubs' lack of power.

Told that Alfonso Soriano believes the power will come as the calendar turns, Sveum paused.

“Calendar?” he said.

Told that it meant the month changing to May, not the year changing to 2013, he laughed at the mix up.

“I’d have to find another job then,” he joked. “Jeez.”

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PHILADELPHIA -- When you fear for your life and police officers suggest you might want to bring along a weapon, it’s pretty safe to assume the memory will remain crystal clear two decades later.

Cubs manager Dale Sveum still has a vivid recollection of what was happening 20 years ago on this day when he found himself close to the epicenter of the Los Angeles riots as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers were about to kick off a three-game series at Dodger Stadium on April 29, 1992, with the Phillies set to head out to the field when the verdicts were read in the Rodney King beating trial.

“What you remember is going out just before batting practice is when the verdict came down,” said Sveum, who was in the lineup at first base that night. “We all had to go stretch but obviously we saw the verdict.”

The “not guilty” proclamation was impactful enough but it would resonate even more as the hours and minutes went by. The area south of Los Angeles was most impacted by subsequent rioting (Dodger Stadium sits on a hill immediately north of downtown).

The game went on as scheduled, though, even as the rioting was escalating.

“About the time it got to about the first or second inning they actually came over the loudspeakers and said what was going on, the rioting and all that stuff,” Sveum said. “It was weird because there were probably 50,000 people there and by about the fourth or fifth inning there was about 10,000 people, if that many. By the time the game was in the seventh, eighth inning there was hardly anybody in the stands at all. Then of course when the game got over all hell was breaking loose all over the city.”

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CHICAGO -- Chicago Cubs manager Dale Sveum might not bat his pitcher eighth like former Cardinals manager Tony La Russa used to do, but he's leaving his own mark by batting his fastest player second.

A speedster like Tony Campana usually is ideal for the leadoff spot because he can get on base to start the game and there is no traffic in front of him to start stealing bags.

But Sveum has a leadoff man he likes in David DeJesus so Campana has been batting second in the few starting chances he's received since being recalled this past weekend. Sveum's spin is that he can tap into other qualities Campana offers.

“DeJesus' on-base percentage has been good; he can drive the ball and hit doubles," Sveum said. “Campana then can bunt him over as well as get a hit when he's bunting him over. It's kind of one of those things that I like DeJesus there and Campana being able to bunt. When he's putting a sacrifice bunt down or bunting for a base hit the odds are pretty good in our favor that he's getting him over and possibly getting on base with a hit."

Asked if he could see moving Campana to the leadoff spot eventually Sveum chuckled and reminded everybody that it's only been a couple of days. But he didn't say he wouldn't do that down the line if DeJesus was struggling or needed a day off.

What has become clear is that Sveum has a traditional National League manager's style, using the sacrifice bunt liberally. He has no qualms about using the first-inning sacrifice bunt.

“I think you have to do it because you're putting pressure on the defense to throw a ball away," Sveum said. “(With Campana bunting) it's going to be bang-bang [at first base] whether it's at somebody or not. And if he pulls off a good bunt he's going to be safe."

It might not hurt that by being in the second hole, Campana isn't thinking about the pressures of setting the table as a leadoff guy and can just do what the situation dictates.

“Campy brings a lot the team," DeJesus said. “He's a special type of player. My job is to get on base for him and make his life easier, bunting the ball and putting pressure on the other teams. If I can do that and have him batting second, the way he's swinging it right now, it's definitely going to help [Starlin Castro, [Bryan LaHair and [Alfonso Soriano with some RBIs."