Cubs 6, Padres 2
CHICAGO -- Starter Scott Feldman threw his first career complete game while the Chicago Cubs hit Diego right-hander Andrew Cashner for runs in each of the first four innings on the way to a 6-2 victory over the Padres on Wednesday night.
Feldman allowed a first-inning single then otherwise kept the Padres off base until Jedd Gyorko's eighth inning solo home run. Chase Headley added a one-out homer in the ninth with none on.
Feldman (2-3) worked nine efficient innings and gave up just three hits, two earned runs, struck out a career-high12 and walked one.
Leadoff better David DeJesus went 2-for-5, Dioner Navarro was 1-for-4 with a home run and two RBI while Feldman was 1-for-3 with an RBI double as the Cubs claimed a 2-1 series lead.
Gyorko's homer was the first of his major league career.
Cashner (1-2) left after four innings and Padres reliever Anthony Bass worked four innings, giving up an RBI double to Nate Schierholtz in the seventh that drove home Starlin Castro for a 6-0 lead.
Cashner, meanwhile, struggled through four innings of work. He threw 96 pitches and allowed 11 base runners -- including six hits, four walks and a hit batter -- as the Cubs opened a 5-0 lead.
Starlin Castro's two-out single to center in the first scored Julio Borbon, but the Padres avoided a worse fate after Cashner loaded the bases. Luis Valbuena was forced out at the plate after Dioneer Navarro recovered an errant pitch and tossed it back to Cashner at home plate.
Feldman helped his own cause in the second. His one-out double into the right-field corner scored Darwin Barney for a 2-0 lead.
With runners on first and third and one out in the third, Navarro delivered a two-run double to the center-field wall for a 4-0 Cubs' lead. In the fifth, Borbon walked, advanced to third on Cashner's throwing error and scored on Valbuena's grounder to short to make it 5-0.
NOTES: Cubs owner Tom Ricketts unveiled an ambitious plan to upgrade 99-year-old Wrigley Field on Wednesday but also threatened to move the team if a proposed 6,000-square-foot video scoreboard and other signage is not approved by the city. A spokesman later described Ricketts' comments as a worst-case scenario. The Ricketts family would pay for a $300 million renovation and $200 in neighborhood improvements. ... Left-handed reliever James Russell didn't give up a run in 11 innings and 14 appearances in April, the first Cubs reliever since Ted Abernathy in 1969 with a scoreless opening month. ... The Padres' 13 runs on Tuesday was the most they've ever scored at Wrigley Field dating back to the club's founding in 1969. Seventeen hits tied a club record as every Padres starter collected at least one hit. ... After starting the season 2-10, San Diego has won five of its last six and seven of its last 14 games. ... Over the Padres' 17 games through Wednesday, catcher Nick Hundley was hitting .375 (34-of-101) with 10 extra base hits. ... The Cubs send left-hander Travis Wood (2-1) against Padres lefty Eric Stults (2-2) in Thursday's series finale, the only day contest in the four-game series.
