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Kouzmanoff, Giles help Padres snap Cubs' streak

Jun 5, 2008 - 5:56 AM SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- Kevin Kouzmanoff's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth inning helped the San Diego Padres claim a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night.

Brian Giles opened the frame with a double to deep right field off Cubs starter Ted Lilly (5-5) and advanced to third on a flyout by Adrian Gonzalez.

After Carlos Marmol relieved Lilly, Kouzmanoff plated Giles with a fly ball to right-center field, giving the Padres the narrow lead.

"It was a good at-bat where he got the fastball he was looking for and drilled it out there," San Diego manager Bud Black said. "Just good fundamental baseball."

Trevor Hoffman was summoned for the ninth and struck out the first two batters of the inning before Ryan Theriot singled. The all-time saves leader then slammed the door by striking out Derrek Lee, notching his 12th save of the season and snapping Chicago's nine-game winning streak - its longest since the 2001 campaign.

"You can't win every game you play," Chicago manager Lou Piniella said. "We have to go out there tomorrow, get a good pitching effort out of (Ryan) Dempster and take it from there."

"We played them close each game," said Black, whose team lost the first two games of the series by a combined four runs. "They got two out of three, but tonight was a good win for us."

Heath Bell (3-3) pitched a perfect eighth to get the win for San Diego after starter Greg Maddux allowed just one run and three hits while striking out four in seven innings.

Maddux failed to record a decision for the fourth straight time despite allowing two runs or fewer on three occasions during that span. The 42-year-old righthander's last victory came on May 10 against the Colorado Rockies.

"Greg was outstanding, one of his better games this season," Black said. "He was locating his pitches, had a great game plan going in and made adjustments throughout the game."

"You do what you can to not lose," Maddux said. "(Chicago) has a good lineup. They missed a couple pitches that were pretty good, but sometimes you catch a break."

Lilly, who allowed two runs and seven hits in 7 1/3 innings while striking out eight, suffered his first loss since April 27.

"It was a tough one," Lilly said. "I made a couple of mistakes and got out of some jams. It's just one of those games where you can only escape so many times."

Scott Hairston opened the scoring for the Padres with a leadoff home run, his eighth blast of the season.

"In that situation, I'm just trying to square one up on a line drive," Hairston said. "Luckily, I was able to keep it between the lines."

Lee evened the contest with a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, plating Alfonso Soriano, who led off the frame with a single to left field and stole second before advancing to third on a base hit by Theriot.