Rivas' key hit vs. hometown Padres lifts Cubs to 7-5 win
SAN DIEGO - Alfonso Rivas hit a tiebreaking 2-run single against his hometown team in the eighth inning, and the banged-up Cubs beat the San Diego Padres 7-5 on Wednesday.
Rivas, who grew up in Chula Vista and went to La Jolla Country Day, came up with the bases loaded and singled to center off Luis Garcia (0-2). Rivas hit a 2-run homer in Tuesday night's 5-4 loss that bounced out of the glove of rookie center fielder Jose Azocar and went over the fence.
One-time Padres pitcher Rowan Wick got a six-out save, striking out Manny Machado to end the eighth with a runner on second. It was his second save in as many chances.
Chicago took two of three in the series after arriving in San Diego with a five-game losing streak.
The Padres announced during the game that manager Bob Melvin had prostate surgery and is expected to make a full recovery. Melvin said Tuesday that he hoped to miss only the first six games of the Padres' forthcoming nine-game road trip.
San Diego tied it at 5 on solo homers by Eric Hosmer and Luke Voit in the seventh.
Cubs shortstop Nico Hoerner departed with a sore right ankle an inning after colliding with second base umpire Dan Iassogna in center field. The Cubs, who have a crowded injured list, were without outfielder Seiya Suzuki for the second straight game due to a sore right ankle.
Hoerner was running to get into relay position after Jurickson Profar hit a fly ball over center fielder's Jason Heyward's head for a triple when he collided with Iassogna. Hoerner was on the ground in pain after the collision in the first inning and was tended to by a trainer. He stayed in, batted in the second and struck out. Hoerner was replaced in the bottom half of the inning by Ildemaro Vargas.
With the Padres trailing 5-3, Hosmer connected with one out in the seventh off Mychal Givens (2-0) and Voit went deep with two outs. It was the seventh career multihomer game for Voit, who was batting .136 and in an 0-for-29 slump coming in. Voit, who recently missed 14 games with a biceps tendon injury, has struck out 18 times this season.
Willson Contreras homered off Nick Martinez with one out in the first, his fourth. San Diego went ahead 2-1 on Hosmer's RBI single in the first and Voit's first homer with the Padres, leading off the second.
The Cubs jumped on Martinez for 4 runs in the fourth. Contreras keyed the inning by drawing a leadoff walk and then taking second on a wild pitch by sliding around the tag of Machado in the shift, touching the bag with his right hand.
Contreras scored the tying run on Patrick Wisdom's one-out single and Frank Schwindel doubled to center with two outs for the lead. Heyward added an RBI single.
Machado extended his on-base streak to 21 games.
Cubs spot starter Keegan Thompson permitted 2 runs and 5 hits in 4 innings.
Martinez allowed 5 runs and 4 hits in 4 innings. He struck out eight and walked two.