Blanks hits inside the park homer in Padres' win over Cubs

When Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster drove in a run in the fourth inning Tuesday night, it gave the Cubs an above-average night at Petco Park.

The run was the Cubs' second of the game after they had averaged just 1 per game over their first four contests in this park.

The Cubs were trying to recover from Monday night's crushing defeat to the Padres, who dealt the Cubs another late loss and knocked closer Kevin Gregg out of his job.

The Padres took a 6-3 lead in the eighth Tuesday when Kyle Blanks hit a 2-run inside-the-park home run and the Cubs went down 1-2-3 in the ninth.

The Cubs fell to 60-57 with the loss but stayed 6 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central as the Cardinals lost to the Dodgers.

Even so, the Cubs are 0-5 in San Diego, where they have had trouble scoring runs all year.

"I don't know why," Cubs manager Lou Piniella told reporters after the game. "We've lost five in a row here, and the most we've scored is 3. I don't know."

The Cubs sent Dempster to the mound. A 17-game winner last year, Dempster fell to 6-7 with a 4.28 ERA as he worked 7 innings, throwing 121 pitches and giving up 8 hits and 4 runs.

Derrek Lee gave Dempster a quick 1-0 lead in the first, when he yanked a solo home run to left field against Cesar Carrillo. The homer was Lee's 24th.

The lead was short-lived. Everth Cabrera led off the bottom of the first with a walk. David Eckstein singled, putting men on first and second. Dempster got two outs, but Kevin Kouzmanoff singled to right to tie the game at 1-1.

After Dempster threw only 5 pitches in the second inning, he threw 29 in the third and gave up 2.

Cabrera was involved again, as he hit a high-chop single back to Dempster and stole second base. Eckstein moved Cabrera to third with a groundout to the right side.

The Cubs chose to walk Gonzalez intentionally, but the Padres got an RBI forceout from Chase Headley and a run-scoring single from Kouzmanoff.

Dempster helped the Cubs pull within a run in the fourth. Jeff Baker doubled with one out. After Geovany Soto flied out, Dempster singled to left to score Baker.

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=314717">Marmol to get the ball in the save situations<span class="date"> [8/19/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <p class="News"><b>Bruce Miles' game tracker</b></p> <p class="factboxtextbold12col"><b>He's streaking:</b> Second baseman Jeff Baker extended his hitting streak to eight games with a second-inning single. He doubled his second time up. Baker was 14-for-28 in the previous seven games. </p> <p class="factboxtextbold12col"><b>Milestone hit:</b> Alfonso Soriano picked up the 1,500th hit of his career in the fifth, when he looped an RBI single into left field.</p> <p class="factboxtextbold12col"><b>He's pretty good: </b>Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez hit his 33rd homer of the season leading off the fifth. It was his sixth homer against the Cubs this year.</p>