How's Cubs manager Lou Piniella holding up under the strain of being down 2-0 in the best-of-five Division Series against the Dodgers?

Not great.

Piniella didn't mince words tonight when somebody asked him about the struggles of outfielder Kosuke Fukodome, who is 0 for 8 in the series with four strikeouts and has just one hit in his last 21 at-bats. He made the instant decision to bench Fukodome for the remainder of the series.

"The kid's struggling,'' Piniella said during the postgame media conference. "There's no point in putting him out there anymore."

It's highly unusual for a manager to spontaneously announce a punitive lineup change after a tough loss, but Piniella is an emotional manager and his frustration with the way this series has gone is impossible to hide. He said that either Mike Fontenot or Reed Johnson would take Fukodome's place for Game 3 on Saturday.