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The best way I can describe what happened on Saturday in Toronto came in one at-bat in the 8th inning. Padres relief pitcher Phil Maton blooped a single down the right field line to drive in a run.
That in and of itself is not all that odd. But when you add some context you realize Maton was hitting in Manny Machado’s spot in the order … in an American League ballpark … and that run was the 19th the Padres scored in the game.
Yeah, this was a fun day at the Canadian yard.
The Padres scored 19 runs on 20 hits in a 19-4 win over the Blue Jays to run their winning streak to five games.
Maton was up because the Padres started the 8th inning with a 14-3 lead. Greg Garcia, who started the day as the designated hitter, moved to shortstop to give Machado a few innings off in a game that was already well in hand.
Then the Padres batted around, forcing Maton to the plate for his fateful first career knock. That may have been the strangest development for the Padres but there was a whole lot more that went down. Here are the basics:
- The Friars hit a franchise record seven home runs: two by Wil Myers and Hunter Renfroe, one each from Eric Hosmer, Ian Kinsler and Austin Hedges (his first career grand slam).
- The previous record was six in a game, set in 1998 (the last time they went to the World Series).- Canada native Josh Naylor (he grew up in Mississauga, a Toronto suburb) got his first hit, an RBI double off the wall in right-center and finished 3-for-6 with a pair of runs batted it.
- Canada native Cal Quantrill (he grew up in Toronto) tossed 6.0 innings and only gave up three runs on two hits with a career-high nine strikeouts to get his first career Major League win.
- Every single guy in the starting lineup got at least one hit.
- They did all this without Franmil Reyes, their home run and OPS leader, playing (Reyes was getting a rest day after appearing in every game of the season so far).
The Padres are now 28-24 and have a shot at back-to-back series sweeps but Sunday is probably not going to have as much offense as Saturday did. San Diego sends budding ace Chris Paddack to the mound against Marcus Stroman and his 2.81 ERA.
