San Dieg Padres shortstop Miguel Tejada watches his throw arrive late to first as Pittsburgh Pirates Argenis Diaz slides in late to second in the ninth inning during their baseball game.

SAN DIEGO — Ryan Ludwick admitted to manager Bud Black a few days ago that he's been pressing.

Black had a one-word answer: "Relax."

Taking his manager's advice, Ludwick hit his first two homers with San Diego, reaching 100 for his career and leading the Padres to a 4-1 victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night.

"That's human nature, to come to a new club and want to do well," Black said about Ludwick, acquired from St. Louis in a three-team trade on July 31. "You just try a little too hard, no matter who you are. He'll be fine.

"Hopefully this will help ease him into a new environment. We're excited to have him," Black said.

"You come over and definitely don't want to mess anything up," Ludwick said. "They've got something going really special over here. I just want to help out. I think at times it's human nature, you kind of try to do a little too much at times. I'm just glad tonight it clicked a little bit."

Ludwick hit a line shot to left on Jeff Karstens' first pitch of the second, then hit a towering fly ball to straightaway center on an 0-1 pitch off Wil Ledezma leading off the seventh for a 3-1 lead. Ludwick has 13 homers this season.

"It's kind of comforting knowing that I can hit a ball out of this ballpark," Ludwick said with a laugh, referring to the spacious outfield at Petco Park that has frustrated other Padres sluggers.

San Diego's Wade LeBlanc tied his career high with eight strikeouts to win for just the second time in six starts. Karstens, making his first start in his hometown, lost his sixth straight decision.

"First pitch to Ludwick, I was just trying to throw a strike," Karstens said. "He didn't hit it hard but you hit it like that in this ballpark and it's still a home run."

"As long as he's hitting home runs, I don't care who's pitching," LeBlanc said. "If he's hitting home runs, that means we're scoring runs."

The NL West-leading Padres (65-46) have the best record in the NL while the Pirates (39-73) have the worst.

LeBlanc (6-10) allowed one run and five hits in 5 2-3 innings, with two walks. Karstens (2-8) allowed two runs and three hits in six innings, struck out three and walked one.

Karstens, who grew up in suburban Spring Valley, said he had more than 200 family members and friends at the game.

LeBlanc has struck out eight batters three times, most recently on June 29 against Colorado. He is 12 for 37 (.324) this season.