Bradley, Harden leads Cubs past Padres and Peavy

Before Tuesday night's 6-2 victory over the Padres at Wrigley Field, Cubs manager Lou Piniella talked about his hitters needing to do a better job with runners in scoring position.

Enter Milton Bradley.

Exit baseball.

Bradley crushed a 1-0 pitch from Jake Peavy with a man on second and one out in the sixth inning, bringing the Cubs back from a 2-1 deficit. There was more. Alfonso Soriano doubled a man in from second and singled home another run.

Although the Cubs were only 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position, they made the hits count.

"We did tonight. It makes a big difference," said Piniella, whose club improved to 18-14. "Those tack-on runs make a big difference, also."

The game featured a pitching matchup between the Cubs' Rich Harden, whom they acquired last July, and the Padres' Jake Peavy, whom they couldn't acquire at the winter meetings.

Harden (4-1) gave up a 2-run homer to the underrated Adrian Gonzalez in the first, but he wound up allowing 4 hits and only those runs.

"Even in the first, I felt good," Harden said. "The first hitter, I threw a changeup up. The next one, I made a good pitch. I guess his approach is to look for that fastball out. The wrong pitch to throw. He put a good swing on it."

Soriano's second double of the game brought the Cubs within 2-1 in the fifth. In the sixth, Kosuke Fukudome (3-for-5) doubled. After Derrek Lee was called out on strikes, Bradley drove one well over the wall in right-center. The ball landed just below the second tier of bleachers, some 440 feet from home plate. When Bradley reached the plate, he pointed to his ear, as if asking to hear some cheers instead of jeers.

"Might as well hear some cheers for once," said Bradley, who hit is fourth homer and is batting .186. "I didn't come here to (stink). I know I've (stunk) so far, but give me some love. You know what I'm saying? I am a Cub."

Peavy (2-5) isn't a Cub, but just like Harden, he turned in a quality start, with 6 innings of 6-hit, 3-run ball.

"I just made a bad pitch to Milt," Peavy said. "Got to make an adjustment there. Other than that, I'd like to have that pitch back."

Bobby Scales, the feel-good story of the year as an "older" rookie, hit a pinch homer in the seventh, before the Cubs' got Piniella his "tack-on runs" with 2 in the eighth.

"It was good to help in a win," Scales said. "My first start, we lost. I'm glad I could help the team win."

Even the much maligned bullpen came through, with Aaron Heilman, Carlos Marmol and Kevin Gregg each putting up a scoreless inning.

"Good win for us," Piniella said. "The hit by Soriano with two outs got us going, the double. We started to swing the bats after that. The bats came alive."

Bruce Miles' game tracker

Job 1: Rich Harden turned in the Cubs' first quality start since May 7, when Ted Lilly followed Harden's quality effort in Houston. It was the 18th quality start for the Cubs this year. The starters' ERA in those games is 2.62.

He's hot: Kosuke Fukudome extended his hitting streak to five games with a pair of doubles and a single. He also stole a base.

In a pinch: Bobby Scales is 2-for-2 as a pinch hitter after homering to lead off the seventh. It was his first big-league homer. Scales' other pinch hit was a triple in Milwaukee last Friday. Micah Hoffpauir added a pinch single in the eighth, and he scored a run as the Cubs added 2 insurance runs.

The right stuff: Although Alfonso Soriano hit a pair of doubles, manager Lou Piniella was more impressed with Soriano going the other way to right with an RBI single in the eighth.