SAN DIEGO _ Christian Villanueva took a strike on the outside corner. He watched three balls wildly miss Jason Vargas' target. He fouled off three other offerings on the outer half of the plate.
Then Mets' left-hander gave in.
The Padres' red-hot rookie didn't miss. He rarely does against southpaws.
Villanueva celebrated a victorious eight-pitch, first-inning battle with a two-run homer that got the Padres' started on a 12-2 win on Saturday night. The ensuing trot was precisely what team doctors ordered after the 26-year-old third baseman missed three games last week with a sore hamstring.
His team lost two of those games.
In the midst of an eighth straight losing April, the Padres need Villanueva to take things as easy as possible after potentially losing Wil Myers to yet another injury.
Villanueva's blast extended his hitting streak to 11 games, Franchy Cordero added another mammoth blast to his resume and Austin Hedges set a career-high with five RBIs in a 13-hit romp in support of rookie left-hander Joey Lucchesi. It all would have been rather enjoyable if it weren't for Myers' fifth-inning pass at a 1-0 fastball.
The Padres right fielder grabbed at his left side after the swing. Then he took a strike, signaled to the bench and exited the game with a left oblique strain, just seven days removed from his previous return from the disabled list to calm an irritated nerve in his right arm.
San Diego's outfield corps is already without Hunter Renfroe due right elbow injury and is just beginning to see life in Manuel Margot's bat (two hits Saturday) after bruised ribs sent him to the disabled list earlier this month.
Myers' supporting cast had already done the heavy lifting before his fifth-inning exit, with Lucchesi largely cruising through 52/3 innings in his first start since allowing a season-high four runs on Sunday in Arizona.
The Padres led 11-0 when Yoenis Cespedes touched him for a two-run homer in the sixth inning. Before that, Cespedes punched out twice as Luchessi racked up six strikeouts in finishing at out shy of a quality start. He scattered four hits, walked two batters and threw 43 of his 79 pitches for strikes over 52/3 innings in earning his third win.
His offense made it rather easy.
Their 13 hits were three shy of the season-high 16 collected in Monday's 13-5 win in Colorado, also the watermark for runs scored in game this season.
Hedges lifted his average to .176 with the three hits that drove in five runs and Margot, Eric Hosmer, Jose Pirela and Freddy Galvis all had multi-hit efforts.
Villanueva?
He had just the one hit, a two-run homer in the first inning for his seventh homer off left-handed pitching and his eighth this season, tops among all rookies.
Villanueva also had a home run taken away by Juan Lagares in center field in the second, walked in the fourth inning and struck out in the fifth inning with the Padres leading 11-0.
Myers had already exited with an oblique injury by then.
Rather than push his luck, Green pulled Villanueva from the game, presumably to further rest the hamstring that knocked him out of the lineup earlier in the week.
