Los Angeles – David Wells beat Greg Maddux in a matchup of 40-something pitchers, James Loney drove in four runs and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Diego Padres 6-3 on Thursday night.
By winning the rubber game of a three-game series and the season finale between the teams, the Dodgers moved within 1 1/2 games of the Padres in the NL wild-card race. The Philadelphia Phillies also trail San Diego by 1 1/2 games while the Rockies are 2 1/2 back.
Released by the Padres last month, Wells (8-8) allowed four hits and three runs in six innings with one walk and three strikeouts. He also had two hits off Maddux (12-10) for the first multihit game of his 21-year career.
The Padres had only two baserunners in the first five innings against the 44-year-old left-hander, who raised his record to 3-0 in four starts with the Dodgers. The win was the 238th of his career, ranking him sixth among active pitchers.
Maddux (12-10) entered having allowed three runs or fewer in 11 consecutive starts, but that streak ended decisively as the Dodgers scored six runs on 10 hits in Maddux’s 3 1/3 innings – his shortest stint of the season.
CUBS 6, ASTROS 2 at Houston: Steve Trachsel (1-2) earned his first win with the Cubs in eight years and Chicago hit four home runs to regain the NL Central lead.
Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez, Daryle Ward and Cliff Floyd all homered for Chicago, which moved a half-game ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers in the division race. The Cubs open a four-game series at third-place St. Louis tonight.
REDS 5, CARDINALS 4 at Cincinnati: Joey Votto hit a two-run double and David Ross followed with a two-run homer as Cincinnati put the finishing touch on St. Louis’ dismal road trip.
The Cardinals lost all seven games on their trip, capped by their first three-game sweep in Cincinnati since July 1998. It’s their first winless trip of at least seven games since May 1972, when they went 0-7 in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.
