JEFF ROBERSON / Associated Press
Mike Piazza gets some love in the dugout after hitting a three-run home run in the ninth inning to beat the Cubs. |
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CHICAGO – The Padres are the hottest team in the majors, winners of 13 games in the past 14, yet they've found an even more savory way to win.
Call it Chicago-style Piazza, served up piping hot at chilly Wrigley Field when Mike Piazza socked a three-run home run in the ninth inning to order up a 4-3 win yesterday over the Cubs.
Piazza's 401st career home run dealt Ryan Dempster his first blown save since July, just two pitches after Mike Cameron and Brian Giles opened the ninth with singles.
Driving an 0-1 slider into the basket above the brick wall in left, Piazza turned a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead and moved to six behind Duke Snider for 40th on the career home run list.
“It's something we've been watching for years. It's nice to see him do it for us,” said Padres infielder Geoff Blum. “It's not fair to expect something like that from someone, but he's still doing it.”
Because another future Hall of Famer was in top form, Piazza found the victory especially satisfying. Cubs starter Greg Maddux had toyed with San Diego over seven scoreless innings, throwing just 61 swerving, sinking pitches.
“It's just elation, any time you get a chance to come back in any game, especially when Greg was pitching so well,” Piazza said. “We were fortunate. It was a team win. We didn't show much offense until late in the game. But that's why there are 27 outs.”
Said Dempster: “I feel terrible because of the way we've been struggling, and Greg pitched so well.”
Maddux took a 3-0 lead into the eighth. But one out after Vinny Castilla hit a leadoff single and reached second base on Jacque Jones' unforced throwing error, Josh Barfield lined a single to score Castilla.
When Paul McAnulty drew a pinch walk on four pitches, Maddux welcomed reliever Scott Eyre. “I didn't want to go through that lineup a fourth time,” said the four-time Cy Young winner. “The strength of our team is the bullpen.”
It paid off for the Cubs when Eyre, a left-hander, induced Padres manager Bruce Bochy to lift his hottest hitter, Dave Roberts, for Eric Young, who hit into a double play.
But the Padres soon set about getting the win for Cla Meredith, who had caught a red-eye from Portland to reinforce a tired bullpen and kept the Cubs from adding to the 3-1 lead.
Cameron and Giles hit soft singles against Dempster, who had converted all seven save chances this year, the latest on May 1. After taking an outside strike, Piazza clubbed a slider and denied Maddux his 324th win.
“I was just trying to keep the ball off the ground,” said Piazza, fearing a double play. “I was able to drop the barrel on it.”
With 13 wins in the past 14 games, the Padres remain tied with Colorado for first place in the NL West. The Padres are winning the easy ones and the hard ones, as starting pitcher Chris Young can attest.
When Young faced Maddux on Monday, the Padres, exploiting more mistakes than Maddux usually makes, gifted Young with seven quick runs and cruised. “I knew it was going to be a tougher game,” Young said.
This time, the Cubs went ahead with two runs in the first, then added an unearned run in the sixth. Young kept the tether just short enough, setting up San Diego's sixth win in six games against the Cubs this month.
“I said to myself that the two runs in the first inning aren't going to beat us,” Young said. “I just wanted to keep the game close. Our hitters are so good that I knew it was a matter of time.”
Young allowed three runs – two earned – and six hits, walked three and struck out four in seven innings. Meredith (1-0) pitched a scoreless eighth.
Trevor Hoffman retired the side in the ninth for his seventh save in as many opportunities.
Piazza's bat is the most productive of any catcher in major league history, but, at 37, he needs more help, and the Padres have recently provided it. Scrapping plans to team Piazza with 35-year-old Doug Mirabelli, the Padres brought in two younger catchers, Rob Bowen and Josh Bard, to lighten the catching load. Bard and Meredith came from the Red Sox in the trade that also saved the club about $900,000.
Piazza said it's no accident that since missing consecutive starts for the first time this season, he's had a four-hit game and the three-run home run, setting up a potential series sweep today.
“You've got to be pragmatic, just realistic,” he said. “I've caught a lot of games. Obviously, I'm here to catch as much as I can, but if I can get some energy and rest . . . I don't want to be treated too special, but I do have to get spelled now and then. Boch is trying to keep me fresh and I just want to return their confidence in me.”
Tom Krasovic: (619) 293-2207; tom.krasovic@uniontrib.com
