SAN DIEGO (AP) — Joc Pederson and Sergio Alcantara homered, and Jake Arrieta threw five strong innings for the Chicago Cubs, who beat former teammate Yu Darvish and the San Diego Padres 3-1 Wednesday to take two of three.
The Cubs beat the Padres five times in six games in a 10-day stretch, including a three-game sweep at Wrigley Field last week.
Darvish (6-2) retired the first nine Cubs batters before Pederson hit a towering home run to right-center field leading off the fourth to tie it at 1. Pederson mimicked Fernando Tatis Jr.’s stutter step as he approached third base on his trot. It was Pederson’s seventh.
Darvish pitched well but took the hard-luck loss when the Cubs scored the go-ahead run in the seventh on Anthony Rizzo‘s double-play ball. Darvish opened the inning by walking Ian Happ and allowing a single to right by Patrick Wisdom before Rizzo hit into a 4-6-3 double play to bring in Happ.
Alcantara homered off Emilio Pagán with one out in the eighth, his first.
Arrieta allowed one run and four hits in five innings, struck out six and walked one. He finished strong, striking out the side in the fifth after allowing a leadoff single to former Cubs catcher Victor Caratini.
Arrieta allowed Manny Machado’s RBI single in the third.
Rex Brothers (2-0) pitched a perfect sixth for the win. Craig Kimbrel, who was San Diego’s closer in 2015, pitched a perfect ninth for his 15th save in 17 chances.
Darvish allowed two runs and three hits in seven innings, struck out eight and walked two.
Darvish was traded from the Cubs to the Padres on Dec. 29, along with Caratini, his personal catcher. Darvish finished second in the NL Cy Young Award voting in 2020 while with the Cubs.
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Cubs: Haven’t named a starter for Friday night’s opener of a three-game home series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Padres: LHP Blake Snell (2-2, 4.83 ERA) is scheduled to start Friday night in the opener of a three-game series at the New York Mets. He’s coming off his best start with the Padres, a 2-0 win against the Mets last Friday night in which he struck out 10 and allowed just one hit in seven innings. He’s expected to oppose RHP Jacob deGrom (5-2, 0.62 ERA), who dominated the Padres in a 4-0 win on Saturday night, striking out 11 and allowing just three hits in seven innings.
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