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Sport
Kevin Acee

Padres pound Blue Jays with team-record seven homers; Quantrill gets first win

TORONTO _ Cal Quantrill came home to be himself.

Austin Hedges continues to be what he thinks he is.

Wil Myers hit his first home run at sea level in 23 days, then added another. Ian Kinsler continued to be one of the team's best hitters in the month of May.

A franchise record was set with seven home runs.

Saturday's 19-4 victory over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre continued some wild, winning times for these Padres.

They have won five games in a row for the second time this season, something they didn't do once in all of 2018.

Coming off their first sweep of a three-game series since August 2017, the Padres (28-24) on Sunday can complete their second consecutive three-game series sweep for the first time since June 2013.

Quantrill, who through his first three starts had allowed seven first-inning runs, made it through six innings for the first time in his four career starts. The two hits he allowed were both home runs _ a solo shot by Lourdes Gurriel in the second and Justin Smoak's two-run homer in the fourth.

As the rookie righted himself in the dome located an hour from his childhood home and where his father, Paul, pitched for six seasons, the Padres poured on the runs against Blue Jays starter Edwin Jackson and each of the four relievers who followed.

They scored in every inning except the third and ninth. They scored multiple runs every inning from the fourth through the eighth. Their 19 runs were the most in the majors this season and more than any Padres team had scored since a 20-7 victory over the Expos on May 19, 2001, in Montreal.

Greg Garcia and right fielder Josh Naylor _ both of whom were in a way filling in for the resting Franmil Reyes, the Padres' home run leader _ led off the game with successive doubles. Garcia was serving as the designated hitter while Naylor moved to right field from the DH spot in which he served in his big-league debut a day earlier. (Following his 0-for-4 Friday, Naylor's first at-bat Saturday yielded his first major league hit and first RBI.)

Myers and Kinsler hit the Padres' first back-to-back homers of the season in the second inning.

Myers entered the game mired in the longest slump of his career, batting .143/.241/.247 with 38 strikeouts and two homers in his past 87 plate appearances. His two homers came May 2 in Atlanta and May 11 in the mile-high air of Denver. Kinsler on Friday committed his third egregious base running error of the season and brought a .186 batting average into Saturday's game. However, since May 1, he is batting .271/.323/.533 with four doubles and four homers.

Myers and Kinsler also drew successive bases-loaded walks in the fifth, directly in front of Hedges, giving the Padres a 10-3 lead with his fifth RBI of the day when he was hit by a pitch from Thomas Pannone, who allowed three runs in relief of Jackson.

Hedges' first four RBIs came on his first career grand slam, a 426-foot blast to left field in the fourth inning, his second homer of the series after he'd arrived in Canada early Thursday morning having not hit one in exactly a month.

Hunter Renfroe's 13th homer of the season made it 12-3 in the sixth. The Padres went up 14-3 in the seventh when consecutive walks by Myers and Kinsler were followed by both advancing on a passed ball and Myers scoring on Garcia's groundout and Kinsler scoring on an infield single by Naylor that Blue Jays third baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. mishandled.

It only got sillier after that.

A five-run eighth included back-to-back homers by Hosmer and Renfroe and a two-run homer by Myers. It also featured the Padres' final run coming when Garcia walked, Naylor accidentally beat the shift with a grounder to the left side and pitcher Phil Maton blooped a single to right field for his first career hit and RBI.

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