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Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Chi. Cubs 5, San Diego 2
When: 10:05 PM ET, Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Where: Petco Park, San Diego, California
Temperature: 73°
Umpires: Home - Gerry Davis, 1B - Alfonso Marquez, 2B - Sam Holbrook, 3B - Greg Gibson
Attendance: 27619
Alfonso Soriano hit two home runs and Ryan Dempster pitched seven stellar innings as the Chicago Cubs dumped the struggling San Diego Padres 5-2 on Tuesday night at Petco Field.

The loss dropped the Padres (87-70) two games behind the San Francisco Giants (88-68) in the National League West with five games to play and 1 ½ games back of the Atlanta Braves (89-69) in the wild card race. Atlanta beat Florida 3-2 and the Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-2.

Soriano snapped a 2-2 tie with a two-run homer off San Diego ace Mat Latos (14-9) in the sixth and added his 24th dinger in the eighth. He doubled and scored the only run in Chicago’s 1-0 win on Monday.

Dempster (15-11) yielded two runs and four hits with nine strikeouts to improve to 11-6 in his last 19 starts. He escaped trouble in the seventh when he allowed the first two batters to reach base before striking out the side.

Carlos Marmol picked up his second straight save in the series and 36th of the season with a spotless ninth inning.

Nick Hundley hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning to snap a 20-inning scoreless drought for the Padres, who have lost three straight and scored just 16 runs in its last seven games.

Latos carried a no-hitter into the fourth, but he committed error in that frame contributed to two unearned runs. The 22-year-old righty departed after 5 2/3 innings, surrendering two earned runs and seven hits in losing his fourth straight start.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Chi. Cubs   San Diego
Ryan Dempster Player Mat Latos
Win W/L Loss
7.0 IP 5.2
9 Strikeouts 6
4 Hits 7
2.57 ERA 3.18
Hitting
Chi. Cubs   San Diego
Marlon Byrd Player Chris Denorfia
2 Hits 1
0 RBI 0
0 HR 0
2 TB 1
.667 Avg .333
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Chi. Cubs 10 2 17 .278 11 11 4 2 0 0
San Diego 4 1 8 .129 11 11 2 3 0 3