SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres’ No.5 starter got knocked around and let down on Friday night.

They will have a fill-in starting Saturday, as Randy Vásquez will be recalled to take the place of the injured Yu Darvish.

Their offense continues to run hot and cold and is currently freezing.

These are precarious times for a team that fell back to .500 with a 5-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in packed Petco Park.

The Blue Jays on Friday took advantage of some fat fastballs and flat knuckleballs from Matt Waldron and scored five runs in the first two innings.

Four of those runs came in a second inning during which Waldron was not helped by his defense. No errors were charged, but two gaffes assisted the Jays.

The Padres offense did Waldron no favors either, continuing a season-long trend of little run support for the right-hander. They have scored seven runs in the four games he has started and five when he has been in those games.

Quite a few more were needed Friday, and the Padres instead struck out a season-high 14 times, had just five hits for a second straight game and got their only run on Fernando Tatis Jr.’s solo homer in the third inning.

Justin Turner responded to the loud boos that greeted his walk to the plate by providing a reminder why he is so unpopular at Petco Park. The longtime Dodgers third baseman, in his first season with the Blue Jays after one season in Boston, blasted a fastball 404 feet and just beyond the glove of leaping center fielder Jackson Merrill. It was Turner’s 26th career home run against the Padres, the third-highest total by any active player.

A one-out double by Danny Jansen started Toronto’s big second, though it probably would not have been as detrimental had Merrill not misplayed a ball and Xander Bogaerts not had trouble getting a grip on a ball.

...continued

©2024 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.