Padres win 2-1 to send slumping Cubs to 6th straight loss
SAN DIEGO (AP) - Sweeping anybody is a big deal for the rebuilding, rookie-laden San Diego Padres.
Make it the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs, and that's huge for a team that hopes to be contending by 2019 or 2020.
San Diego rookie Franchy Cordero tripled leading off the eighth inning and scored on Yangervis Solarte's fielder's choice, and the Padres beat Chicago 2-1 on Wednesday to hand the Cubs their season-high sixth straight loss.
Luis Perdomo, in just his second big league season, and two relievers combined to hold the struggling Cubs to three hits. The Padres won their season-best fourth straight game and swept the Cubs for the first time since August 2012.
The 22-year-old Cordero, who batted leadoff and struck out in his first three at-bats, made his major league debut on Saturday. Rookie slugger Hunter Renfroe batted cleanup in this one. And the Padres started rookie Luis Torrens at catcher, giving Austin Hedges a day off.
Perdomo pitched seven strong innings a day after rookie Dinelson Lamet produced another solid outing, striking out eight in five innings of a 6-2 win to improve to 2-0.
"Playing that way, pitching that way, seeing Dinelson Lamet throw the ball the way he's thrown it and seeing it in Perdomo, and now you see it in a group of young guys, you ... don't have to dream on, you can just believe in because you see what they've got," manager Andy Green said. "It's exciting to see those guys show up and start to do some really good things."
The Padres have won four straight for the first time since August 2015.
Nice, but Green is more impressed with the way the young guys have played.
"Those kind of things will be impactful for the organization in the future," he said. "Young guys all over the baseball field and they're doing a nice job right now."
Cordero tripled to right-center off Koji Uehara (1-3) leading off the eighth. Solarte hit a grounder to second baseman Ian Happ, whose throw home wasn't in time to get Cordero.
Cordero showed his speed on both the triple and his dash home.
"I'm really happy, really excited to be able to get the triple and to score the run there," he said through a translator. "And just really, really happy to have won the game. "
Green said Cordero has "special tools inside of him. He's young and a lot of young guys don't have the resiliency to come up with the game on the line in the eighth inning and get the triple - and most people don't turn that into a triple, either. He was flying around the bases and had the speed to score on the groundball to second base there on the contact play, get his foot in there clearly."
The Cubs, who were swept at the Dodgers last weekend, finished their first winless trip of at least six games since August 2012, when they also lost three at Los Angeles and three at San Diego.
Overall the Cubs have lost seven in a row on the road.
"You've got to give their guy credit," manager Joe Maddon said. "Perdomo threw the ball really well today; good velocity, good sinking velocity. He forced a lot of weak contact, threw a lot of strikes, and they were able to make one more play than us."
Perdomo allowed one run and three hits, struck out four and walked two.
Brad Hand (1-3) pitched a perfect eighth for the win, and Brandon Maurer worked the ninth for his eighth save.
The Cubs took a 1-0 lead in the second. Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch for the second time in three games and didn't look happy about it. He tossed his bat aside and slowly walked to first. He stole second, advanced on Happ's fly to center field and scored on Willson Contreras' two-out infield single.
Ryan Schimpf tied it with a leadoff homer against Jake Arrieta in the second. Shimpf came in hitting .166. Of his 25 hits, 14 are home runs.
Arrieta went six innings, holding San Diego to one run and five hits while striking out seven and walking two.
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"I think with what we accomplished last year, obviously the expectations are really high and they should be, and we'll take it," Arrieta said. "We'll deal with the criticism, and continue to move forward. ... I think it's been magnified because we haven't been doing really anything collectively well."
UP NEXT
Cubs: Return home for an off day Thursday before RHP John Lackey (4-5, 5.18 ERA) is scheduled to oppose RHP Lance Lynn (4-3, 2.93) in the opener of a three-game series against St. Louis.
Padres: After a day off, LHP Clayton Richard (3-6, 4.33 ERA) opens a three-game series against Colorado, which counters with RHP German Marquez (4-2, 3.76).
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