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Rizzo, Arrieta lead Cubs over Padres

May 23, 2014 - 6:25 AM San Diego, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Anthony Rizzo smacked a two-run homer against his former team and the Chicago Cubs defeated the San Diego Padres, 5-1, in the opener of a four-game set on Thursday.

Rizzo also added a double, while Junior Lake posted an RBI double among his two hits and scored a run for the Cubs, who have won four of their last five games on the heels of a 2-10 stretch.

Rizzo was with the Padres for some of the 2011 season before being sent to Chicago in a swap that sent pitcher Andrew Cashner to San Diego.

"If you hit a ball well, if you get it, you're going to get it here," Rizzo said. "It's nice not having to take batting practice here every day."

Jake Arrieta (1-0) fanned seven and surrendered a run on four hits and a walk over six innings to notch the win.

Eric Stults (2-5) yielded five runs on six hits over 4 2/3 frames for San Diego, which has dropped four in a row.

"We get seven hits and didn't really stress Arrieta much," Padres interim manager Dave Roberts said. "Just couldn't put hits together."

Roberts filled in for manager Bud Black, who was at his daughter's college graduation.

The Padres opened the scoring with Seth Smith's two-out solo homer in the first, but the Cubs plated a pair in the fourth and three more in the fifth to surge ahead.

Lake led off the fourth with a bunt single down the third-base line for the first Chicago hit of the game and Rizzo followed with a no-doubt blast into the sand in right center for a 2-1 edge.

Nate Schierholtz doubled to begin the fifth before scoring on Darwin Barney's roller back through the middle. Barney advanced to second on Arrieta's sacrifice bunt and scored when Emilio Bonifacio grounded a single through the hole on the right side.

A wild pitch allowed Bonifacio to scamper to second and Lake banged a one-hop double off the wall in center to plate him and extend the margin to 5-1.

Carlos Villanueva fired a scoreless seventh, eighth and ninth to record his first save since 2010.

Game Notes

Rizzo has eight homers and 23 RBI this season ... Chicago was 3-for-7 with runners in scoring position, while San Diego finished 0-for-4 and left six men on base.