Harden Bests Former, Almost-Cub Peavy: Cubs 6, Padres 2

On the 39th anniversary of Ernie Banks' 500th home run, Milton Bradley hit a titanic, two-run blast in the sixth inning to lead the Cubs and RIch Harden past Jake Peavy and the Padres.

In the first inning, Harden gave up a leadoff double to Brian Giles and one out later, a two-run homer to Adrian Gonzalez. He limited the Pads to just two more hits and held them scoreless over the remainder of his six innings, at one point retiring 13 San Diego hitters consecutively.

Peavy was trying to become the first San Diego starting pitcher to win a game since April 17th. He was in a position to do so, clinging to a 2-1 lead, before Bradley stepped to the plate with Kosuke Fukdome on second base and launched his fourth homer of the year into the upper-section seats in straightaway center field.

Bobby Scales, pinch-hitting for Aaron Heilman to lead off the Cub 7th, hit his first career home run to extend the Cub lead. The home team tacked on two more insurance runs in the 8th.

Heilman, Carlos Marmol, and Kevin Gregg followed Harden to the mound and blanked the Padres over the final three innings to secure Harden's fourth straight win.

Hardlee productive: Derrek Lee returned to the lineup and fanned three times, including a fourth-inning at-bat when Fukudome was at third base with none out. Micah Hoffpauir did get into the game late, ripping a pinch-hit single that contributed to the two-run rally in the eighth.

Just in case you're keeping track:

Derrek Lee (in 94 AB's) .202/.280/.351/631 OPS
Micah Hoffpauir (in 62 AB's) .306/.353/.532/885 OPS

Lee has 3 HR / 1 per every 31.3 AB ; Hoffpauir has 3 HR / 1 per every 20.7 AB.

Lee has whiffed 23 times this year; once per every 4.1 AB; Hoffpauir has 11 K, that's once per every 5.6 AB.

Listening to Lou Piniella's pre-game radio show with Ron Santo, I was struck by the way Lou gushed over the fact that Lee would be able to start tonight. It was almost like he was trying to talk himself into being excited about the veteran's return.

Enemy update: the Cardinals' Ryan Ludwick had to be pulled from tonight's game with the Pirates after he strained a hamstring while running down a fly ball.

More on Ludwick: From the Post-Dispatch...

Not only did the Cardinals drop a 7-1 decision to the Pirates, but they almost certainly have lost right fielder and cleanup man Ryan Ludwick for a period of time, probably even the disabled list, because of a right hamstring strain. He was hurt when giving futile chase to Nyjer Morgan's fly ball, which went for a two-run triple in the second inning.

Manager Tony La Russa was on the telephone to general manager John Mozeliak, who was in Memphis, to report the dire news and perhaps seek another outfielder for immediate use. Center fielder Rick Ankiel already is on the DL with assorted bruises after banging into a wall last week.