SAN DIEGO (AP) - Eric Stults had a promising first three innings for the San Diego Padres on Thursday night, allowing only one baserunner.
Then he allowed his first hit, a bunt single by Junior Lake, followed by Anthony Rizzo’s go-ahead, two-run home run on a 3-1 fastball that helped power the Chicago Cubs to a 5-1 victory.
“Obviously a good start, a poor finish,” Stults said. “I felt like early in the game, everything was working.
“Even the fourth inning, I’m fine with giving up that home run. I don’t want to give it up, but I felt like 3-1 I challenged him and he put a good swing on it.”
Jake Arrieta pitched six strong innings for the Cubs.
Arrieta (1-0) held San Diego to one run and four hits, struck out seven and walked one. He was activated May 3 after beginning the season on the disabled list with tightness in his right shoulder and came in with a 2.70 ERA in three starts.
San Diego lost its fourth straight game. It was the 15th time in 48 games the Padres scored one or no runs.
The Padres were shut out for the eighth time - most in the majors - on Wednesday night, losing 2-0 to Minnesota.
Rizzo put the Cubs ahead 2-1 in the fourth with a 417-foot homer into the sandy play area beyond the fence in right-center, his eighth.
Rizzo was with the Padres part of the 2011 season before being traded to the Cubs in the deal that sent right-hander Andrew Cashner to San Diego.
The Cubs chased Stults in the fifth with three runs and four hits. Nate Schierholtz hit a leadoff double and scored on Darwin Barney’s single to center. Arrieta sacrificed Barney, who scored on Emilio Bonifacio’s single to right. Lake doubled over center fielder Cameron Maybin’s head to bring in Bonifacio.
“I was probably too much on the plate,” Stults said. “They started to get too aggressive and I probably threw too good of pitches early in the count. I made a good pitch to Barney but other than that, the balls were up in the zone.”
Carlos Villanueva pitched the final three innings for his first save this season.
San Diego’s only run came on Seth Smith’s two-out homer to right in the first, his team-leading sixth.
Smith is batting .457 (26 for 60) in May, with eight doubles, three triples, four homers and 11 RBIs.
Stults (2-5) gave up five runs and six hits in 4 2-3 innings, struck out four and walked none.
The Padres wore replica uniforms from 1984, when they beat the Cubs in the NL championship series to reach the World Series for the first time.
Cubs manager Rick Renteria spent the previous six seasons on San Diego’s coaching staff.
NOTES: The four-game series continues Friday night when Cubs RHP Edwin Jackson (3-3, 3.98) faces Padres RHP Tim Stauffer (1-0, 2.41), who will be making his first start of the season. … Padres LHP Robbie Erlin, who had been scheduled to start Friday night, went on the 15-day disabled list with a sore left elbow, retroactive to Sunday. He is 3-4 with a 4.53 ERA in nine appearances, including eight starts. To take his spot on the roster, the Padres selected RHP Blaine Boyer from Triple-A El Paso.
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