Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Cavan Biggio made his MLB debut on May 24, 2019.Dan Hamilton/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
The strikeouts keep on adding up for the Toronto Blue Jays, along with the losses.
Perhaps the two go hand in hand.
For the 27th time in 51 games this season, the team with the lowest batting average (.218 before the game) among all 30 major-league teams, had 10 or more strikeouts in a game.
And the San Diego Padres took advantage, knocking three home runs to upend the Blue Jays 6-3 in the first of a three-game weekend series at Rogers Centre on Friday night.
The biggest of the three knocks came from Hunter Renfroe, who took Toronto reliever Daniel Hudson over the wall in left field for a three-run blast in the eighth inning that broke up a 3-3 tie.
Greg Garcia and Austin Hedges also homered in the win for the Padres (27-24), who are trying to keep pace with the front-running Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West.
The Blue Jays (20-31), are 6-17 over their past 23 as their downward trajectory continues
Rookie Trent Thornton got the start for Toronto, and he was terrific early on, striking out five of the first seven batters he faced in the first two innings, including three on called strikes. The rookie finished with 10 strikeouts in six innings, a career high.
Meanwhile, Padres starter Joey Lucchesi made mincemeat of the Toronto batting order.
The lefty was enjoying a perfect game before he issued a one-out walk to Randal Grichuk in the fifth, which drew a sarcastic round of cheers from the Toronto fans.
Those cheers were real when the next batter, Freddy Galvis, hit a two-run homer over the left-field wall.
And the joint was truly jumping when Lourdes Gurriel Jr., in his first game back after getting summoned from Triple A, followed that with a solo homer over the wall in right to tie the game 3-3.
Toronto struck out 13 times, 11 of them accounted for by Lucchesi, a career high, over 6 2/3 innings. The Padres had 12 strikeouts of their own.
Cavan Biggio, who made his MLB debut for Toronto at second base, went 0-for-3 at the plate with two strikeouts.