Former Douglas High standout Shawn Estes had some serious doubts if he was ever going to get his 100th career Major League victory.
Khalil Greene hit a three-run homer to help Estes reach that milestone and earn his first win since 2005 in San Diego's 4-3 victory over the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Tuesday night.
Estes, who graduated from Douglas in 1991, pitched 51/3 innings and persevered after falling behind 3-0 in the first inning. Trevor Hoffman pitched a scoreless ninth for his seventh save in nine chances and 531st save of his career.
After pitching 12/3 innings in relief Thursday, Estes replaced Justin Germano in the rotation. He made only one start in 2006 for the Padres and missed the 2007 season recovering from Tommy John surgery.
"I didn't think I was going to make it back last year. I was going through a lot of pain in my elbow again," said Estes, who is pitching in his 13th major-league season after being drafted by the Mariners and pitching in at least parts of seven seasons (1995-2001) for the Giants.
"I came into spring training having to deal with the mental side of pitching again and having to make a team and having to swallow my pride a little bit and going back to Triple-A to get things right."
