Gurriel, Galvis homers not enough as Padres defeat Blue Jays

Blue Jays: 3 Padres: 6

The headlines in Blue Jays land today were all centered on Cavan Biggio’s call up, and the first instance of two sons of hall of famers playing on the same team. Sadly, this bloodline magic couldn’t overcome a six run deficit and the team named after fathers took Game 1 from the sons.

The game started out in a solid pitcher’s duel between two young pitchers with funky deliveries in Trent Thornton and Joey Lucchesi, with both starters striking out five batters each in the first two innings. Thornton ended up accruing a career high 10 strikeouts, throwing 112 pitches total over 6 innings. He gave up three earned runs on four hits, and walked three.

The Padres broke through first in the 3rd. Austin Hedges hit a one-out solo shot, then a walk to Franmil Reyes and back-to-back singles by Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer plated a second run. Thornton pitched a clean 4th, but gave up a third run on another solo shot by Greg Garcia in the 5th. He gave up only a walk to Hunter Renfroe in the 6th. Another solid start for Thornton.

Derek Law pitched the 7th, and gave up a lead off double to Ian Kinsler, who then advanced to 3rd on a groundout. However, Danny Jansen tried to pick off Kinsler and they ended up tagging him out in a rundown, keeping the game tied.

Daniel Hudson came out for the 8th, and issued a one out walk to Manny Machado. Eric Hosmer tapped one back to the mound, and Hudson threw to Galvis at 2nd to try to get the lead runner, but he threw wide of the base, allowing Hosmer to reach and Machado to advance to 3rd. Then, Hunter Renfroe drove them both home with a 3-run shot to put the Padres ahead for good.

The recently recalled Thomas Pannone pitched the 9th, and he gave up a 2-out double to Ty France that Gurriel Jr fielded well enough. He gets a passing grade for his defense in his first major league game in the outfield.

Offensively the Jays were held to three hits on the evening - Galvis had two, and Gurriel had one. The Jays were hitless and without a baserunner until the bottom of the 5th when Randal Grichuk took a one-out walk. Freddy Galvis was up next, and he hit a belt high pitch to deep left center to bring the Jays within one. Two pitches later, Lourdes Gurriel Jr went back-to-back with Galvis in his first game back up from AAA, and launched his first home run of the season to tie the game. Lucchesi retired the next seven batters in order until a single by Galvis ended his night.

The Jays went down in order in the 8th against Robbie Erlin, and they had only one baserunner in the 9th when Craig Stammen hit Justin Smoak in the foot. Another disappointing performance from the Jays offense, but at least they were up against some tough competition.

Both Mississauga native Josh Naylor and Cavan Biggio had 0-fers in their major league debuts.

Jays of the Day: Galvis (+.197 WPA) and let’s give Gurriel (.088) one too for the game tying homer

Suckage: Hudson (-.414), and everyone else in the Jays’ lineup

We had 599 comments in the GameThread. DangYouToHeck gets another victory. Congratulations, sir.

Tomorrow Edwin Jackson will take on Canadian Cal Quantrill at 3:07pm ET.