MESA, Ariz. (AP) _ With Kerry Wood likely to start the season on the disabled list, the Chicago Cubs are counting even more heavily on Ismael Valdes.

Valdes showed some improvement in his second spring training start but not enough for the Cubs to avoid a 6-2 loss to the San Diego Padres on Wednesday.

``His stuff was as good as it's been all year,'' manager Don Baylor said. ``I was surprised how much velocity he had. He had three good innings and popped the ball well. That's what we want to see.''

Valdes was roughed up by the Chicago White Sox in his first spring start, allowing five runs and six hits in 1 1-3 innings. He breezed through the first two innings against the Padres before running into trouble in his final frame.

With Wiki Gonzalez on second and two outs, Valdes bore in a fastball on Damian Jackson's hands. Jackson blooped a broken-bat RBI single to left field. Valdes then allowed on RBI single to Tony Gwynn and second baseman Eric Young's error allowed a third run to score.

Baylor has been pressing Valdes to pitch inside more and was not discouraged by the bloop hit.

``Hitters talk about who will throw inside and who won't,'' Baylor said. ``He wonders why people hit his great outside pitches. Back and forth is what pitching is all about.''

Valdes, acquired in December from the Los Angeles Dodgers to help shore up the Cubs shaky pitching, is still on target to start the opener against the Mets in Japan in three weeks.

``I felt like I made progress today,'' Valdes said. ``I hit my spots, had good velocity. I'm where I should be after two starts.''

Wood, who missed last season following elbow surgery, struggled with his mechanics earlier in the day when he threw 46 pitches of batting practice. He has been told he will not make the trip to Japan and most likely will not be in Chicago for the U.S. opener on April 3 at St. Louis as well.

``I wasn't pleased with the way I was throwing,'' Wood said. ``I was pleased with the fact that I had no pain and was letting it go. It was one of those days where I was rushing a little bit.''

Wood's loss in 1999 was a big reason the Cubs slipped from a wild-card team to last place in the NL Central and had the second highest ERA in the league.

``He's made tremendous strides, but we have to slow him down,'' Baylor said. ``It's a long process. We have to be sure before we rush him back.''

Jackson had two hits and two RBIs, and Gonzalez had two hits and two runs scored for the Padres. Starter Will Cunnane allowed one run in two innings to get the win.

Mark Grace went 3-for-3 with an RBI single for the Cubs, while Sammy Sosa was hitless in three at-bats.