CHICAGO — The Padres did something new Tuesday night, and yet it rang with the familiar.
They struggled at the plate for half the game, then started hitting. That was the part anyone who watches them regularly should have become accustomed to by now.
This time, though, they came back from their largest deficit of the season to beat the Cubs 12-5 at Wrigley Field.
Down 5-0 heading into the sixth inning, the Padres — who hadn’t overcome a deficit larger than three runs in a victory this season — scored four runs in the sixth and six more in the seventh to post their sixth victory in the last eight games.
For a team that goes through long stretches without doing much of anything on offense, it can certainly put together some outbursts.
Tuesday’s game was the fourth time this season they scored 10 or more unanswered runs in a game.
The Padres had three hits when Jake Cronenworth led off the sixth inning with a double. That hit chased Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks, who to that point had not yielded a run to the Padres in 13 2/3 innings this season. Hendricks, who was pitching for the first time since June 1 because of a bout with shoulder fatigue, was removed having thrown just 78 pitches.
The Padres, led by Luke Voit’s five RBIs, pulverized a parade of relievers, dooming the once again forlorn Cubs to their eighth straight defeat.
Voit’s seventh home run of the season made it 5-2 with one out in the sixth against Chris Martin, who would yield a single to Eric Hosmer, throw a wild pitch that allowed Hosmer to scamper to second and then have Nomar Mazara’s two-out single drive in Hosmer.
Ha-Seong Kim greeted new reliever Scott Effross with a single that scored Mazara to make it 5-4.
The Cubs took their big lead in large part because Sean Manaea became the latest Padres pitcher to be unable to get Willson Contreras out. Contreras drove in Chicago’s first three runs with a pair of home runs and also doubled and scored the fifth run. In five games against the Padres this season, he is 11 for 17 with three home runs, a double and two walks and has been hit by three pitches.
Manaea was pulled with one out and Contreras on third base in the fifth inning, just the second time this season Manaea has not gone at least six innings.
Kyle Tyler came in to make his Padres debut, and Contreras scored on a groundout before Tyler ended the inning with another groundout.
Tyler worked a perfect sixth before the Padres sent 12 batters to the plate in the top of the seventh.
The first out of the inning was Kim’s sacrifice fly that gave the Padres a 10-5 lead.
That came after singles by Trent Grisham and Cronenworth, a walk to Manny Machado against new reliever Mychal Givens, Voit’s bases-clearing double, two more walks and Mazara’s two-run single off new reliever Brandon Hughes.
The six runs in the seventh inning were the Padres’ second most in an inning this season, behind the eight they scored April 26 in Cincinnati. The 10 runs in successive innings comprised their highest two-inning total.
Jorge Alfaro’s home run in the eighth made it 11-5. A double by Kim and RBI single by Grisham created the final run.
And they did it all with only a walk being contributed by Machado, who remains a hit away from 1,500 in his career after going 0 for 5. He appeared to have reached the milestone in the ninth before Cubs center fielder Christopher Morel made a diving catch on a line drive to the gap in left-center.
Tyler, who was designated for assignment five times since mid-March, including twice by the Padres, was credited with his first major league win.
Nabil Crismatt worked a perfect seventh and navigated a leadoff single in the eighth. Ray Kerr closed out the ninth.
