Maddux allows one run in eight innings

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- It was vintage Sammy Sosa and Greg Maddux.

Sosa hit a towering homer to tie Mike Schmidt for ninth place on the career list at 548, and Maddux pitched eight strong innings to lead the Chicago Cubs over the San Diego Padres 6-1 Friday night.

Maddux probably would have had the chance to finish the game but was left winded after chugging from first to home on Jose Macias' bases-loaded triple into the left-field corner with one out in the ninth.

"That was awesome, especially to see how few pitches he did it with," manager Dusty Baker said after Maddux breezed through eight innings on 88 pitches.

Maddux has always said he has a simple approach to pitching.

"It's simple when you have that kind of control," Baker said.

"I've been feeling pretty good," Maddux said. "It's just one of those things where I made some mistakes that they made outs on. That always helps."

On Macias' triple, Maddux blew threw third base coach Wendell Kim's stop sign.

"I didn't see it. I was watching the play and I just kind of made up my mind I was going, and I was already going when I saw the stop sign," said Maddux, who reached on a fielder's choice bunt. "I looked too late."

Padres slugger Ryan Klesko, a former teammate of Maddux's in Atlanta, said the right-hander was throwing on the corners all night.

"I've seen him do it for years," Klesko said. "He's unbelievable to go out and watch. He's an artist. It looks like he's throwing down the middle and the next thing you know it's straight away from your bat and you hit a ground ball."

Macias also tripled in the eighth and scored. Macias and Moises Alou each had three hits.

San Diego's Ismael Valdez couldn't have served up a fatter pitch for Sosa, hanging a chest-high curveball opening the fourth that the slugger drove an estimated 417 feet into the first row of seats in center field, where it hit off a fan's glove and fell back onto the field. It was Sosa's ninth and gave the Cubs a 2-1 lead.

"It's an honor," Sosa said. "No question. I got the chance to tie one of the greatest third basemen in baseball. I still have a ways to go. Right now my mind is not on the longball. I just want to help my team."

Corey Patterson also homered to help give Maddux (3-3) his 22nd win in 40 career starts against the Padres.

Maddux held the Padres to five hits and one run, with four strikeouts. He didn't walk a batter for the third straight start.

Maddux has 2,800 career strikeouts, three short of tying Cy Young for 15th on the all-time list. Maddux won four Cy Young Awards, from 1992-95.

Maddux dodged trouble in the second despite allowing consecutive singles by Phil Nevin and Ryan Klesko opening the inning. Nevin scored on Miguel Ojeda's one-out single to right before Maddux got rookie Khalil Greene and Valdez to ground out.

Patterson homered just to the right of the 396 foot sign in straightaway center field leading off the third.

Valdez (3-2) was pulled after allowing Macias' leadoff triple in the eighth, and Scott Linebrink then allowed Ramon Martinez's RBI single. Valdez gave up three runs and seven hits.

Greene, the Padres' shortstop, made three nice diving plays, two in the sixth. He dove to his right to glove Macias' grounder leading off the inning and threw him out, then made a backhanded diving stop of Sosa's grounder deep in the hole and threw him out. In the eighth, he dove for Aramis Ramirez's grounder to start an inning-ending double play.

"I guess sometimes the ball finds you a lot, other times you play the whole game and don't get any chances to do anything," Greene said."

Game notes
The Padres wore throwback uniforms from 1984, the year they rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Cubs in the NLCS to reach the World Series for the first time. Back then, the Padres' color scheme was brown, yellow and orange. Fortunately, they wore the home whites on Friday night. ... Cubs ace Mark Prior, sidelined with an inflamed Achilles' tendon and sore elbow, is scheduled to throw 55 pitches at extended spring training Saturday in Mesa, Ariz. ... Padres LHP Sterling Hitchcock, on the DL with a broken rib, will pitch a simulated game on Saturday.