Costly error overshadows Thornton's 10 K's

TORONTO -- Blue Jays reliever Daniel Hudson was pitching in the top of the eighth inning and had a runner on first with one out, when Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer hit a 97 mph fastball up the middle.

Hudson made a great play to get the ball, which set up a double-play opportunity. However, Hudson missed shortstop Freddy Galvis on the throw, which allowed Hosmer to reach safely and give the Padres runners at the corners.

On the very next at-bat, Hunter Renfroe took Hudson deep for a tiebreaking three-run homer, which provided the final margin in the Blue Jays' 6-3 loss at Rogers Centre on Friday night.

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“We had a chance to turn that double play and we didn’t do it, and that’s why we lost that game, actually,” manager Charlie Montoyo said. “I know we only had three hits, but we battled back and we were in the game. He made a big pitch and got the ground ball, but he just couldn’t finish and threw the ball away.”

Although he wasn’t in line for a decision by the time he came out, the three-run eighth inning put a damper on a solid pitching performance from Toronto starting pitcher Trent Thornton, who found himself ingrained in a pitching duel.

The rookie pitcher delivered a quality start and a career-high 10 strikeouts over six innings of work. Thornton was solid going up against Padres starter Joey Lucchesi, who was perfect through 4 1/3 innings and struck out 11 in 6 2/3 innings overall.

“I felt pretty good. My stuff was the best it has felt all year. I made two mistake pitches,” Thornton said of his performance. “The defense played pretty great and we swung the bats when we needed to for the most part. We just came out on the wrong side tonight.”

Thornton went six innings while allowing three runs on four hits while walking three batters. He threw 112 pitches, the most of any Blue Jay in a game this season, with 62 of them for strikes.

Toronto trailed 3-0 in the fifth inning when it started a comeback bid.

Freddy Galvis hit a two-run homer off the top of the left-field fence, which cut the Padres’ lead to 3-2. Lourdes Gurriel Jr., called up on Friday from Triple-A Buffalo, made it back-to-back homers to tie the game, 3-3.

“It was good to see Gurriel go opposite field. That’s a good sign,” Montoyo said. “And the balls he fielded, one of them wasn’t easy. That was also a good sign.”

Toronto finished the game with just three hits, as run support continues to be an issue. The club came into Friday’s game with an MLB-low .201 batting average at home.

Cavan Biggio went 0-for-3 in his Major League debut. Along with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., they became the first sons of Hall of Famers to play on the same team.