Life without Alfonso Soriano began Thursday, and that life is likely to have a different look each day.
The Cubs placed Soriano on the 15-day disabled list with a broken bone in his left hand. He suffered the injury Wednesday night when he was hit by a pitch from Atlanta's Jeff Bennett. Thursday's roster shuffle included the Cubs sending right-hander Kevin Hart to Class AAA Iowa and calling up infielder/outfielders Eric Patterson and Micah Hoffpauir from Iowa. As a result, the Cubs went from 13 back to 12 pitchers.
Patterson started in left field and led off Thursday's 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves and went 1-for-5. He also can play second base. Patterson led off once before, going 0-for-4 on April 18, when Soriano was on the DL with a strained right calf.
Hoffpauir is expected to see time at DH, beginning as early as Friday, when the Cubs open interleague play at Toronto.
The Cubs used center fielder Reed Johnson 10 times as leadoff man in Soriano's April absence. They've also used infielder Mike Fontenot to lead off.
Hart was 2-1 with a 6.62 ERA in 12 appearances with the Cubs.
CUBS 3, BRAVES 2 (11 innings): Reed Johnson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score Aramis Ramirez with the winning run. Johnson was pinch-hitting for Jim Edmonds, whose solo homer in the ninth tied the game at 2-2. Carlos Zambrano gave up a two-run homer to Jeff Francoeur in the second inning. Zambrano settled down to work seven innings, giving up eight hits. Kerry Wood earned the win in relief.
