"We're just going to play as nice of a lineup as we can with the fact that we're going to do what's best for the Chicago Cubs also," Piniella said. "That's all."

Piniella could have a big impact on which team Chicago plays in the first round of the playoffs. The Mets won 6-2 Tuesday night to remain one game in front of Milwaukee, which beat Pittsburgh 7-5, in the wild-card race and move within 1 1/2 games of NL East-leading Philadelphia, which lost 3-2 to Atlanta.

After the series with the Mets, the Cubs close out the regular season with three games against the Brewers at Miller Park.

"We go from here to Milwaukee where basically we might be in a similar situation," Piniella said. "We need to play competitive lineups, and we will."

Piniella tinkered with his rotation before Monday's win, opting to start Sean Marshall in the second game of the series against New York and move Rich Harden back to Thursday.

Henry Blanco was behind the plate for Marshall's start, Casey McGehee was at third and Ronny Cedeno played shortstop. McGehee and Cedeno both doubled and scored in the loss.

Right fielder Kosuke Fukudome, who entered hitting just .219 since the All-Star break, also was in the lineup after coming off the bench in Monday night's win. He had two hits and drove in a run.

"We're going to play him, see if we can get him some at-bats and get him swinging the bat well for the postseason," Piniella said.