Cubs’ Maddux Halts Padres’ Winning Streak at 6 Games : Baseball: Sandberg sparks Chicago’s 6-2 victory that includes brotherly duel between Mike and Greg Maddux.

The phone call will come sometime today. Padre reliever Mike Maddux will answer it, hear the laughter and know exactly who’s on the other end.

It will be his little brother, Greg. The same guy who was the winning pitcher Thursday afternoon in the Chicago Cubs’ 6-2 victory over the Padres at Wrigley Field. The same guy who snapped the Padres’ six-game winning streak. That Greg Maddux.

He’s sure to be calling, all right, to boast about Thursday’s performance. He’ll talk about how he allowed only five hits in eight innings, with only three runners getting past first base. And Greg will tell Mike how the bottom of the order went hitless in 16 plate appearances.

“It won’t be pleasant,” Mike Maddux said.

But before the conversation ends, they will talk about the incident in the sixth inning.

The Cubs were winning 5-2, and the crowd of 23,200 appeared more interested in finding their beer vendors than studying the intricacies of the game, when it happened.

Greg Maddux walked toward the plate, Mike Maddux stood on the mound, and, lo and behold, they were facing one another. It was the first time in two years and the fourth time in their careers they appeared in the same game.

Greg immediately glared at Mike; Mike glared at Greg. Greg kicked the dirt at the plate; Mike kicked the dirt on the pitching rubber. Greg spat; Mike spat.

It took a moment, but the crowd soon realized what was transpiring. To aid the suspense, the organist began playing the theme to the old TV series, “All in the Family.”

“I think we all got wrapped up in it,” Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn said. “I play against my brother, and there’s other brothers that play against each other, but pitching against each other, whew, that’s something else.”

This was no time for family sentiment, Mike Maddux said. It was tough enough watching his brother shut down his teammates, so he wasn’t going to let Greg put the game out of reach with his bat.

“I know people might think it’s hard to concentrate in a situation like that,” Mike said, “but, hey, we needed an out. It was just a case of I know who was hitting, and he knew who was pitching.”

Mike, pitching out of the stretch, threw the first two pitches low and outside. He threw a fastball for a strike, and then came back with a slider. Greg Maddux swung, and hit a grounder toward second baseman Jose Mota. He flipped the ball to first baseman Fred McGriff, and the confrontation had ended, or so it seemed.

“You could tell something was going to happen,” Gwynn said, “just from (Greg) Maddux’s reaction. He wanted that hit against his brother.”

Greg took a wide turn at first, and instead of running toward the Cubs’ dugout, came toward the mound, mumbled a few words and ran across the mound.

“I called him chicken for throwing me a slider when the count was 2-and-1,” Greg said. “He didn’t want to give me anything to hit.”

Mike, unable to remain serious, started laughing, reached over and slapped his brother on the derriere. The crowd began laughing along with them.

“To tell you the truth,” Mike said, “I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. People don’t realize the competitiveness between the two of us. We’ve got to be the only kids who would charge the mound against each other growing up playing Whiffle ball.

“I know it’s my brother and everything, but the last thing I want to do is give up a hit against him. And when he’s pitching against us, I root against him just like I would any other pitcher.”

You want him to get shelled?

“Well, actually, 1-0 would be fine with me,” Mike Maddux said, smiling.

“And that run can be unearned.”

With the way Greg Maddux (6-3) pitched Thursday, the only way the Padres avoided a shutout was when McGriff hit his 13th homer of the season, a two-run shot in the fourth.

McGriff, who spent the first four years of his career with Toronto in the American League and never before had played at Wrigley Field, also became initiated in the bleacher-bum tradition of throwing back home-run balls hit by the opposition. When the fans first started chanting, ‘Throw it back, throw it back,’ an orange came flying out of the stands. But two innings later, after more peer pressure, the baseball finally appeared.

“But you know, I don’t think that was the ball,” McGriff said. “It was too white. It looked like a new ball.

“The guys in here, though, said it must have been a Blue Jay fan that caught it.”

The Cubs did the bulk of their damage in the third inning, scoring three runs on four consecutive hits, thanks to a bad-hop single that bounced crazily over the head of Mota. They chased Padre starter Jose Melendez in the sixth inning, resulting in the worst outing by a Padre starter since May 28. Melendez gave up eight hits and five earned runs in five innings.

“It was just one of those crazy games,” Melendez said. “What are you going to do?”

Ryne Sandberg contributed two singles, a triple and a home run (in the seventh off Mike Maddux) before Padre reliever Rich Rodriguez walked him in the eighth.

Once again, the only constant for the Padres was Gwynn. He went three for four, raising his batting average to a league-leading .366. Gwynn, who has a .593 career batting average against Maddux, is batting .408 over his past 25 games.

Although the family affair might have centered on the Maddux family, this was quite a special day for Gwynn. He celebrated his 10th wedding anniversary with his wife, Alicia, who made the trip.

“Let me tell you, it’s been a great 10 years,” Gwynn said. “Everything I’ve accomplished is because of her.”

And considering that Gwynn regularly plays against his brother, Chris Gwynn of the Dodgers, perhaps he more than anyone can understand the emotions experienced Thursday by the Maddux brothers.

“It’s a special feeling, but kind of strange,” Gwynn said. “You want to beat them. And you certainly don’t want him to beat you with a hit. But you don’t want him stinking up the joint, either.

“I don’t want Chris to strike out. It’s an awful feeling. What I hope every time we play that we get a big lead, and then Chris gets all the hits he wants. That’s the best scenario.”

“But Chris and I don’t pitch against each other, either. That would be too weird. I don’t know if I could do that.

“But I’ll tell you, it was sure fun watching the Madduxes going at it.”