SAN DIEGO -- Mark Prior can touch his face and shave with his right hand now, but he's not ready to start throwing.

The Chicago Cubs pitcher is rehabbing from a compressed fracture in his right elbow suffered when he was hit by a line drive on May 27.

"It's definitely better," Prior said Sunday, "but I still have a long way to go."

He has to wait for the pain to subside, the inflammation to go down and his mobility to return before he can resume throwing.

"This is one of those stage injuries where you have to get through the first stage, and then the second stage, which is throwing, and we'll see how it reacts to throwing," Prior said. "Once I know how it reacts to throwing, then it's a matter of, 'Have I lost a lot, have I not lost a lot?'"

He's picked up a baseball briefly.

"To hold it, yeah. They won't let me throw it," Prior said. "I'm trying to follow orders."

He was 4-1 with a 2.93 ERA in nine starts before Colorado's Brad Hawpe knocked him out with a line drive to his elbow. There's no timetable for Prior's return. It all depends on how he feels. The right-hander does feel good about the way the Cubs have played lately.

"We're playing well and I think we took advantage of the teams we had to take advantage of which is Colorado and Houston," he said. "We played great in [Los Angeles] and so far have played great here. Going into this weekend, if we could've split, that would've been considered a success considering how well they played in May."

The Padres won 22 of 28 games in May, and lead the National League West. No matter what happens in Sunday's finale, this has been a successful road trip for the Cubs, who often struggle on the West Coast.

"The year we went to the playoffs, we were two or three out the first week of September," Prior said of the 2003 season. "We've got a tough stretch coming up -- we've got Boston, New York, the White Sox and a lot of teams with winning records, and we're going to have to play good baseball against them."

Of the next six teams the Cubs will play, only Milwaukee is under .500, and the Brewers were at 26-29 (.473) as of Sunday. It'll be a test.

"If we can't catch St. Louis, we still have a good shot at the Wild Card, and we all know the history of the Wild Card," Prior said. "They've had a pretty good history.

"It's a long season. It's six months," said Prior, who will definitely be back before the season is over. "You can lose it in the first two months, but it's tough to win in the first two months. We have to keep playing. We're having some fun now, it's exciting.

"I think everybody's stepped up when they had to and more than anything, everybody's pulling for each other and loves playing with each other, and we're having a lot of fun right now," he said. "When we were losing, we weren't getting blown out, we just weren't getting it done at the end. Everybody knows their roles now. There's not a lot of uncertainty. It just takes time to iron out those things."

And despite Prior and Kerry Wood only making 14 starts because of injuries, the Cubs lead the National League in strikeouts.

"We've done that since I've been here," Prior said. "I think that's a credit to Larry [Rothschild, Cubs pitching coach] and the catchers, who come up with good scouting reports and understand people's weaknesses and what we can exploit and what we can't. Obviously, we have some power arms from top to bottom, mixed in with a couple left-handers and [Greg] Maddux, and obviously, Maddux knows how to throw, too."

Vote for Neifi: Neifi Perez is second on the Cubs in batting, and part of the reason is a switch he made this offseason. Perez worked more on hitting to the opposite field and slightly altered his stance.

"You have to trust your hands," Perez said. "And I've got a different hitting style now. Before, I used to hit lower [think Ozzie Guillen], but now I hit standing up and just wait for the ball."

Does it help him see the ball better?

"I think so," Perez said. "It's working good. I just try to stay inside the ball."

When Perez joined the Cubs last August after being released by the San Francisco Giants, he and Sammy Sosa would take extra batting practice every day. Perez still does that this year.

"I come two hours before stretching and go to the cage," he said. "I don't know if I can do it the whole year because my arm will be tired. I'll do it until I feel tired."

Too many swings can wear a player out. He is lifting weights and exercising in hopes of maintaining his strength. One other part of Perez's routine is that he tapes his own wrists each day.

"I started it in Colorado and now I can't play without it," said Perez, who starts with blue tape, and then covers that with white. "If I play without this, I feel like I'm naked."

Share the wealth: It's been tough for Jerry Hairston Jr. to settle back into a backup role. With the return of Todd Walker from the disabled list, Hairston now is platooning at second with Walker, and will primarily play against left-handers.

"He's handling it pretty good now," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said of Hairston. "Let's face it, there aren't many offensive second baseman around who are better than 'Walk.'

"I'm going to try not to have him sit too long, either -- it's not fair to them or to us," Baker said of Hairston, who has played three times as many games as Walker, who injured his left knee April 10. "You hope these lefties come along [for Hairston to play]. It'll be impossible for 'Walk' to get his stroke if he's not doing the majority of playing. I'm not saying Hairston can't hit, but 'Walk' has a heck of a track record."

Hairston came through on Saturday night, going 3-for-5 with two RBIs.

"I've been feeling pretty good when I'm in there and I just haven't had the results," Hairston said. "'Walk's' a great player. In my mind, I've always been an everyday player. It's been tough, but when we're winning it makes it easier."

It's been nice to see the offense pick up in the recent stretch.

"We definitely have good hitters in this lineup," Hairston said. "We knew it was a matter of time before we put it together. [Derrek Lee's] been carrying us the whole year and it's nice to have other guys step up."

Extra bases: Reliever Chad Fox still has some nerve issues with his right elbow, and will come to Chicago sometime before the All-Star break to be examined by the medical staff. "He'll come up with either closure or a game plan," Cubs athletic trainer Mark O'Neal said. Fox has been on the disabled list since April 26. ... Reliever Mike Remlinger was activated from the disabled list, and Roberto Novoa optioned to Triple-A Iowa. Novoa is 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA in eight appearances with the Cubs. ... Congratulations to Tim Buss, the Cubs strength and conditioning coordinator, who was elected into the Newton (Iowa) High School Hall of Fame.

This and that: The 17 hits by the Cubs on Saturday night were their most in San Diego in a nine-inning game. The previous high was 16 on May 8, 1997, in a 6-2 Cubs win. The only time the Cubs had more than 17 hits in a game in San Diego was a 21-hit, 16-inning marathon June 22, 1996, which ended in a 9-6 Cubs win.

The Cubs' record for most wins on a West Coast trip is eight. The team went 8-3 on a trip from June 28-July 8, 1984. On that trip, the Cubs were 3-1 in Los Angeles, 2-1 in San Diego and 3-1 in San Francisco.

The last time the Cubs started a West Coast trip 5-1 was May 15-21, 1995, when they were 2-1 in San Francisco and 3-0 in Los Angeles. Those six games covered the entire West Coast portion of the road trip. The Cubs also had a 5-1 start on a West Coast swing in June 1979 and August 1992. They finished that June trip 6-2, and the August '92 trip 6-3.

Draft day: Tuesday is the first round of the June First-Year Player Draft, and the Cubs will pick 20th. Some recent 20th overall picks include Mike Mussina (1990), Torii Hunter (1993), Terrence Long (1994), Eric Milton (1996), Adam Kennedy (1997) and C.C. Sabathia (1998).

Last year, the Cubs did not have a first-round pick, and selected Notre Dame pitcher Grant Johnson in the second round. The right-hander strained a hamstring in February, and had yet to start pitching for one of the Cubs' Minor League teams this year.

The most recent draft to have produced a Cubs Major Leaguer was in 2001. So far, Prior, Sergio Mitre and Brendan Harris, who were selected that year, have played for the Cubs. At least one draftee from every year from 1965 to 2001 has gone on to play for the Cubs.

Minor matters: David Aardsma, acquired from the Giants in the LaTroy Hawkins deal, gave up two runs on five hits and three walks over six innings in West Tenn's 4-2 loss to Carolina on Saturday. Aardsma struck out two. Casey McGehee was 2-for-4. ... The Triple-A Iowa Cubs lost to Memphis, 7-6. Ryan O'Malley gave up six runs on nine hits and four walks over five innings. Calvin Murray was 3-for-5, and Trenidad Hubbard and David Kelton each hit home runs. ... Daytona split a doubleheader against Brevard County. Sean Marshall gave up two runs on five hits and two walks over seven innings in a 2-1 loss in the first game. In the second game, Daytona scored nine runs in the bottom of the sixth to win, 10-1. Scott Moore was 2-for-3 with an RBI. ... Aaron Sisk was 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs in Peoria's 9-1 win over Lansing.

On deck: The Cubs resume Interleague Play on Monday as the Toronto Blue Jays make their first-ever trip to Wrigley Field. The two teams met in an Interleague series in 2003, which the Blue Jays took, 2-1. John Koronka will make his second big league start Monday night for Chicago against Venezuelan Gustavo Chacin.

Looking ahead to the weekend series against Boston, the Red Sox will start Bronson Arroyo, Wade Miller and Tim Wakefield. If the Cubs stay on schedule, they'll start Greg Maddux, Carlos Zambrano and Koronka.

Carrie Muskat is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.