SAN DIEGO - With their playoff push down to the final week, the last thing the offensively challenged Padres needed was to face the reinvigorated Carlos Zambrano.
Zambrano won his seventh straight decision since rejoining Chicago's rotation, and the Cubs held on to beat San Diego 1-0 on Monday night to knock the Padres out of the NL wild card lead.
The Padres, who loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth before pinch hitter Nick Hundley flied out to left, dropped one-half game behind the Braves.
"Nobody likes to lose, whether it's April or September," Padres manager Bud Black said.
The Padres fell a game behind idle San Francisco in the NL West race. After three more games against the Cubs, the Padres end the season with three weekend games in San Francisco.
Zambrano (10-6) outdueled Tim Stauffer, holding San Diego to three hits over seven innings. He struck out five to pass Charlie Root for second place in club history with 1,436. He walked four.
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Zambrano said his mother saw him pitch for the first time.
"I knew she was there," said Zambrano, who is from Venezuela. "She kind of inspired me. Today was a special day."
The big right-hander nicknamed "Big Z" because of his 6-foot-5-inch frame that carries 260 pounds is 7-0 with a 1.27 ERA in 10 starts since returning to the rotation on Aug. 9. Following a June 25 dugout blowup, Zambrano was banished to the restricted list. He underwent anger management therapy, then made three relief appearances before getting his starting job back.
"Thank God that he blessed me with this end of the season. I read the other day in the paper, 'the former ace.' If you can count, you can see if I'm the former ace or if I'm still the ace of this team along with the other guys. I have confidence in myself," Zambrano said.
"This is a little bit different Carlos than we've seen in the past," San Diego's David Eckstein said. "The Carlos that we've faced before had that hard, 95 mph sinker. Tonight it wasn't as hard, but he was cutting the ball and especially was elevating that fastball just a little bit at the top of the strike zone, which was hard to get on top of. He was mixing in his split-finger and keeping guys off-balance. He's doing a great job."
Carlos Marmol pitched an eventful ninth for his 35th save in 40 chances. He struck out the first two batters before Yorvit Torrealba reached on an infield single, sliding headfirst into the bag. Everth Cabrera pinch-ran for Torrealba and stole second before Marmol hit Chase Headley on the right foot. Tony Gwynn Jr. walked to load the bases before Hundley flied out.
"This club just doesn't give up," Eckstein said. "We always try to find a way to put ourselves in a position to come up with that hit. We've done it a lot. It just didn't happen tonight."
Stauffer (5-5) held the Cubs to three hits through six innings before Chicago broke through. Alfonso Soriano doubled to left and scored on Blake DeWitt's single to center. DeWitt and Marlon Byrd each had three hits.
