TORONTO _ Hunter Renfroe made sure that a couple surreally bad moments did not ruin the start of the Padres' international interleague trek.
Renfroe's three-run homer in the eighth inning was the difference in a 6-3 victory over Toronto at Rogers Centre that salvaged a mostly excellent night by Joey Lucchesi and saved Ian Kinsler from another baserunning blunder being big.
Renfroe's blast, his 12th of the season, came an inning after Kinsler cost the Padres a prime chance at a go-ahead run by getting caught in a rundown between third base and home plate for the second out of the seventh inning.
After leading off the inning with a double to right field, Kinsler went to third on Austin Hedges' grounder to second.
Three pitches later, on a change-up that put Greg Garcia behind 1-2, Blue Jays catcher Danny Jansen threw to third base to start the rundown that would end up with Kinsler being tagged out by first baseman Rowdy Tellez.
The gaffe could be added to the time the 36-year-old Kinsler, in his 14th major league season, was caught trying to steal third after a 10th-inning double, and the time he was thrown out between second and third because he ran on a grounder to shortstop, and the time he was he was picked off first base.
That loomed large because Lucchesi had lapsed for just a bit in the fifth inning.
In between recording his ninth and 10th strikeouts of the game, Lucchesi lost a perfect game in four pitches, a no-hitter and shutout three pitches later and the lead two pitches after that.
After striking out Tellez to start the fifth, Lucchesi walked Randall Grichuk on four pitches. Freddy Galvis, the Padres' shortstop a year ago, then sent an 0-2 pitch bouncing off the top of the left-field wall and out for a two-run homer, and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. smacked an 0-1 pitch beyond the wall in right-center field to tie the game 3-3.
Lucchesi retired the next seven Blue Jays he faced, getting two outs into the seventh before Galvis' single to right field prompted manager Andy Green to go to Matt Wisler, who finished off the inning on four pitches.
Lucchesi allowed just the three hits in his 6 2/3 innings, his second consecutive quality start after not having any in his first eight outings.
Home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi's large and wavering strike zone frustrated batters but helped both starting pitchers reach career highs in strikeouts.
Among Toronto rookie Trent Thornton's 10 strikeouts were six looking. Five of Lucchesi's 11 strikeouts came on called third strikes.
It took the two teams a while to start putting the ball in play.
Through two innings, each pitcher had recorded five of six outs by strikeout. Eric Hosmer's fly out in foul territory in shallow left field was the only ball the Padres put in play against Thornton. And Vladimir Guerrero's fly ball to center field was the only ball in play against Lucchesi.
The first hit of the night left the field of play.
The suddenly surging Hedges hit his fifth home run of the season _ and first since April 23 _ over the left-field wall to give the Padres a 1-0 lead with one out in the third.
The suddenly selective Franmil Reyes drew a two-out walk, his fifth in 29 plate appearances after a span of 85 plate appearances without one. Reyes moved to second on Manny Machado's single and scored on a single by Hosmer.
Garcia's home run to right-center, his second of the season, put the Padres up 3-0 in the fourth.
Their decisive inning started with Machado's one-out walk and continued when Blue Jays reliever Daniel Hudson fielded a chopper by Hosmer and threw wide of second base trying to get Machado. With runners at the corners, Renfroe went down 0-2 by taking two pitches down the middle and then fought off a fastball on the outside corner before sending a similar fastball an estimated 361 feet.
Wisler (2-1) was the fortunate winner. Robbie Erlin pitched the eighth, and Craig Stammen worked the ninth for his second save.
