Padres Blanked in Finale

CHICAGO CUBS 4, SAN DIEGO 0 --------------------

CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Ryan Dempster continued to roll in his new role. Dempster set a career high with 12 strikeouts Thursday as the Chicago Cubs shut down the San Diego Padres, 4-0, in the finale of a four-game series. Notching his eighth career game with double-digit strikeouts, Dempster (5-1) yielded six hits - five singles - and walked one in 8 1/3 innings.

A closer each of the previous three seasons with the Cubs, Dempter collected his fifth win in six starts at Wrigley Field this season. Overall, he has allowed two earned runs or less in six of his nine starts. The righthander had a chance for his first shutout since 2001, when he was a member of the Florida Marlins. After yielding a leadoff double to Brian Giles in the ninth, Dempter came back to strike out Adrian Gonzalez. Chicago manager Lou Piniella then took a trip to the mound but quickly retreated after the fans expressed their displeasure. However, Piniella came right back out after the next batter, Kevin Kouzmanoff, singled to put runners on the corners with one out. Closer Kerry Wood came on to strike out the two batters he faced, nailing down his eighth save of the season.

Beyond the mound, Dempster also starred at the plate, breaking up a scoreless tie with an RBI single off Greg Maddux in the fifth. It was the third of four straight hits off Maddux, the recently minted 350-game winner. Alfonso Soriano followed with a single and Ryan Theriot lofted a sacrifice fly with a sacrifice fly for a 2-0 advantage. Derrek Lee added a two-run double for the final margin directly after.

Maddux (3-4) struggled with baserunners through his outing, giving up double-digit hits for the third time this season. Overall, the 42-year-old was charged for four runs and 11 hits in 4 1/3 innings. It might have been worse for Maddux if not for a favorable bounce in the second inning. After giving up a leadoff double to Aramis Ramirez, Maddux saw the Chicago third baseman advance to third on a groundout by Kosuke Fukudome. The veteran righthander then unleashed a wild pitch that hit off the brick backstop and came right back to home plate, enabling Ramirez to get tagged out at home.