Sosa’s 548th Homer Ties Schmidt

It was vintage Sammy Sosa and Greg Maddux.

Sosa hit a towering homer to tie Mike Schmidt for ninth place on the career list at 548, and Maddux pitched eight strong innings to lead the Chicago Cubs over the San Diego Padres, 6-1, Friday night.

Maddux probably would have had the chance to finish the game but was left winded after chugging from first to home on Jose Macias’ bases-loaded triple into the left-field corner with one out in the ninth.

“That was awesome, especially to see how few pitches he did it with,” Manager Dusty Baker said after Maddux breezed through eight innings in 88 pitches.

Maddux has always said he has a simple approach to pitching.

“It’s simple when you have that kind of control,” Baker said.

Said Maddux: “I’ve been feeling pretty good. It’s just one of those things where I made some mistakes that they made outs on. That always helps.”

On Macias’ triple, Maddux blew past third base coach Wendell Kim’s stop sign.

“I didn’t see it. I was watching the play, and I just kind of made up my mind I was going, and I was already going when I saw the stop sign,” said Maddux, who reached on a fielder’s choice bunt. “I looked too late.”

Macias also tripled in the eighth and scored. Macias and Moises Alou each had three hits.

San Diego’s Ismael Valdez couldn’t have served up a fatter pitch for Sosa, hanging a chest-high curveball opening the fourth that the slugger drove an estimated 417 feet into the first row of seats in center field, where it hit off a fan’s glove and fell back onto the field. It was Sosa’s ninth this season and gave the Cubs a 2-1 lead.

“It’s an honor,” Sosa said. “No question. I got the chance to tie one of the greatest third basemen in baseball. I still have a ways to go. Right now my mind is not on the longball. I just want to help my team.”

Corey Patterson also homered to help give Maddux (3-3) his 22nd win in 40 career starts against the Padres.

Maddux held the Padres to five hits and one run, with four strikeouts. He didn’t walk a batter for the third start in a row.

Maddux passed Cy Young for 15th place on the career list with 2,800 strikeouts. “I wish I would have got the ball,” Maddux deadpanned. Maddux does have four Cy Young Awards, won from 1992 to ’95.

Maddux dodged trouble in the second despite giving up singles to Phil Nevin and Ryan Klesko to open the inning. Nevin scored on Miguel Ojeda’s one-out single to right before Maddux got rookie Khalil Greene and Valdez to ground out.

Patterson homered just to the right of the 396-foot sign in straightaway center field leading off the third.

Valdez (3-2) was pulled after allowing Macias’ leadoff triple in the eighth, and Scott Linebrink then gave up Ramon Martinez’s run-scoring single. Valdez gave up three runs and seven hits.

Greene, the Padre shortstop, made three nice diving plays, two in the sixth. He dived to his right to glove Macias’ grounder leading off the inning and threw him out, then made a backhanded diving stop of Sosa’s grounder deep in the hole and threw him out. In the eighth, he dived for Aramis Ramirez’s grounder to start an inning-ending double play.