SAN DIEGO _ A hometown kid flexed his right arm Monday night. Time and time again, he spun his curveball past flailing bats. He walked off a mound in line for a win.
His name was Trevor Cahill, not Matt Bush. He's penning his comeback story in a San Diego Padres' uniform, not the Texas Rangers'.
The latest installment was a five-plus-inning entry in which the 29-year-old Vista High grad allowed just one hit and didn't yield a run in a 5-1 win that snapped the Padres' four-game skid in front of 17,756 at Petco Park.
Wildly effective, Trevor Cahill (3-2) struck out seven but walked five, hit another batter and found the strike zone on just 54 of his 100 pitches. That didn't keep the hometown crowd from cheering him as Padres manager Andy Green lifted him with two on and one out in the sixth inning with his team clinging to a 4-0 lead.
Left-hander Brad Hand tightened the grip, freezing the left-handed Joey Gallo looking on a curve and getting the right-handed Jonathan Lucroy to swing over the top of another. Shin-Soo Choo's solo homer with one out in the seventh accounted for Texas' lone run.
The Padres had the advantage because they muscled up against Rangers right-hander Nick Martinez, with Ryan Schimpf hitting his ninth homer in the third and Austin Hedges hitting his seventh in the fourth.
Hedges and Manuel Margot also singled in runs in the second off Martinez, who allowed four runs on eight hits and a walk in six innings.
Cory Spangenberg added his first homer of the season off left-hander Alex Claudio with one out in the seventh.
Cahill started strong, striking out the side to start the game.
In fact, the Rangers didn't collect their first hit until Carlos Gomez's two-out single in the fourth.
It was their only hit off Cahill, who has allowed only an unearned run in his last 11 1/3 innings. He has struck out 14 in that span, allowed just four hits and has lowered his ERA to 3.06 in his return to the rotation on a bargain $1.75 million deal for his hometown Padres, his fifth organization since the Oakland A's drafted him in the second round in 2006.
"I think it's his temperament," Green said. "Having known him in Arizona, I think he's much more comfortable in his own skin. He's pitched. He's been around. He knows what it takes to be successful."
