Clemens nicked early, Padres lose 6-3 to Cubs

Major league ERA leader Kyle Hendricks pitched six effective innings and the Chicago Cubs finished off a three-game sweep, beating the Padres 6-3 on Wednesday in San Diego.

Arrieta had thrown only 99 pitches when he came out after eight innings.

“He should be” in the Cy Young discussion, manager Joe Maddon said. He was on the cusp of a very respectable outing against a really good offense. “I think he believes he is one of the best right now”. “That’s all I worry about”.

“I like to bring them out”, he said.

Yu Darvish hit his first career home run in a no-decision and Adrian Beltre drove in the eventual winning run with a double in the eighth inning, lifting the Texas Rangers to a 6-5 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday night at Great American Ball Park. The 26-year-old Californian has lost just one of his last 11 starts, allowing fewer than two earned runs eight times in that span and fewer than four in each outing.

Two innings later, Bryant triggered a three-run rally by drawing an inning-opening walk.

Grimm yielded a run on a dropped third strike/wild pitch to Ryan Schimpf, but struck out Sardinas (+0.044) and Brett Wallace (+0.027) on five pitches each to end the threat and keep the Padres at arm’s length and helped spare a exhausted bullpen.

The Padres’ first hit was a clean single to right by left fielder Alex Dickerson leading off the second. The left-hander has not allowed an earned run in 43 games since May 5. Meanwhile, San Diego seems destined to fall to 53-74 on the year.

Travis Jankowski drew a walk to open the game, advanced to second on a grounder and stole third … only to be picked off by a rocket throw by Contreras.

With two outs in the fifth, Darvish crushed a pitch onto the grassy knoll in center for his third career hit. The first baseman hit a well-struck ball down the first base line, only to see a perfectly shifted Luis Sardinas scoop it up to turn the inning-ending double play (-0.48).

“Maybe he wasn’t as sharp as usual, but he was really good”, Maddon said. “That kind of put a damper on things”. His one-out blast put the Cubs ahead 1-0. Rizzo singled in between walks to Dexter Fowler and Ben Zobrist. Aaron Altherr added two RBI singles. Stephen Piscotty went 3-for-5 with three RBIs, and Yadier Molina also went 3-for-5, singling home the last run in the eighth to cap the onslaught. Evan Longoria stopped the streak with a two-run homer off Matt Barnes in the ninth.

“Kris Bryant is a tough hitter”, Padres manager Andy Green said.

Padres: OF Jabari Blash was placed on the disabled list with a sprained left finger.

The way Arrieta did with that August 30 no-hitter past year at Dodger Stadium on national TV, walking into the press conference in a moustache-covered onesie, Maddon going with the pajama theme again for the flight home after this weekend’s series in Los Angeles.

There’s a drawing of a player executing a bunt, and two teammates thought that pitcher Jon Lester – who executed a squeeze bunt last month to win a game – was the author of that T-shirt.

Padres: LHP Christian Friedrich (4-9, 4.69 ERA) looks to snap a three-start losing streak as he has dropped seven of his past nine outings. Padres starter Paul Clemens (2-3, 5.06) held on to pitch 5 1/3 innings after the rough first but consequently suffered the loss.