By Canadian Press

Renfroe hits tiebreaking homer in eighth inning as Padres beat Blue Jays 6-3

May 25, 2019 | 9:28 AM

TORONTO — His frustration evident, Toronto reliever Daniel Hudson bit the top of his glove as he slowly walked back to the mound after making an untimely throwing error in the eighth inning.

Hudson had speared a comebacker but his throw to second base was wide, putting runners on the corners. Hunter Renfroe followed with a tiebreaking three-run homer and the San Diego Padres were on their way to a 6-3 win over the Blue Jays on Friday night.

“We had a chance to turn a double play and we didn’t do it,” said Toronto manager Charlie Montoyo. “That’s why we lost that game actually. I know we only had three hits but we battled back and we were in the game.

“He made a big pitch, he got the ground ball and he just couldn’t finish and threw the ball away.”

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Austin Hedges opened the scoring for San Diego with a solo homer in the third inning and Greg Garcia added a solo shot in the fifth to make it 3-0.

The Blue Jays tied the game in the bottom half of the frame. Freddy Galvis hit a two-run homer and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., followed with a solo shot.

Renfroe’s blast came on an 0-2 fastball from Hudson (3-2). It was his ninth go-ahead home run of the year and 12th homer overall.

The result sent the struggling Blue Jays (20-31) to their ninth loss in 11 games at Rogers Centre. Toronto has dropped 17 of 23 overall and is 11 games under the .500 mark for the first time this season.

Both starting pitchers came out firing in front of an announced crowd of 19,480.

Toronto’s Trent Thornton opened the game with back-to-back strikeouts and fanned the side in the second inning. San Diego’s Joey Lucchesi, meanwhile, struck out eight of the first 10 batters he faced.

Gurriel, who played left field, was called up from triple-A Buffalo earlier in the day along with second baseman Cavan Biggio, who was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in his big-league debut.

Canadian rookie Josh Naylor, a native of Mississauga, Ont., made his first major-league appearance as the Padres’ designated hitter. The 12th overall pick in the 2015 MLB draft struck out twice and went 0-for-4.

Thornton had a career-high 10 strikeouts over six innings. He allowed three earned runs, four hits and three walks.

“I felt pretty good,” Thornton said. “My stuff was probably the best it has been all year for me tonight. I made two mistake pitches.”

San Diego had the potential go-ahead run at third base in the seventh inning but an alert Danny Jansen caught Ian Kinsler leaning off the bag. The Toronto catcher fired the ball down the line and Kinsler was tagged after a rundown. 

Lucchesi finished his 6 2/3-inning appearance with 11 strikeouts. He gave up three hits, three earned runs and walked a batter.

“He had us off-balance the whole time,” Montoyo said. “He’d come in with the fastball and come in with the change-up and we couldn’t make the adjustment.”

Matt Wisler (2-1) got the final out of the seventh inning for the win. Craig Stammen hit Justin Smoak with a pitch in the ninth before finishing off his second save.

The game took two hours 49 minutes to play.

Notes: Cal Quantrill (0-2, 5.40 earned-run average), the son of former Blue Jays pitcher Paul Quantrill, will start for the Padres on Saturday. The Port Hope, Ont., native will be making his fourth major-league start. The Blue Jays will counter with fellow right-hander Edwin Jackson (0-1, 6.30). … The Blue Jays and Padres last played each other in July 2016 at Rogers Centre. Toronto won two of three. … Before the game, the Padres placed outfielder Alex Dickerson (wrist) on the 10-day injured list and transferred left-hander Aaron Loup (elbow) to the 60-day IL.

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Follow @GregoryStrongCP on Twitter.

Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press