By Canadian Press

Padres hit three homer runs to double up Blue Jays 8-4 and avoid sweep

Jul 27, 2016 | 12:25 PM

TORONTO — R.A. Dickey is hoping he has another late-season turnaround left in him.

Starting on short rest, the Blue Jays knuckleballer fell to 7-12 on the season with an 8-4 loss to the San Diego Padres on Wednesday afternoon. 

Dickey gave up seven runs — six earned — on four hits, including two homers, four walks and a hit batter as he dropped his third straight decision.

“I think it’s only human that you question some of the methods or the selection, but at the end of the day if I’ve learned anything through my experience as a baseball player it’s that you kind of have to have blinders on and trust the pedigree,” Dickey said. “I know it’s in there and it’s been there a number of years.

“I still have a third of my season left so there’s reason for optimism and I’m going to roll with that.”

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The 41-year-old Dickey struggled through the first half of last season before turning things around down the stretch and winning eight of his last nine decisions.

The 2014 season followed a similar pattern with Dickey notching wins in seven of his last 10 decisions.

“It was about this time last year that I took off and felt good,” said Dickey, who had five strikeouts over his 5 2/3 innings of work. “My body feels great so there’s no reason to believe I can’t repeat what I’ve done over the last couple of years.”

Adam Rosales hit a two-run homer, Brett Wallace drove in a pair with a home run and a single and Alex Dickerson also went deep as the Padres (44-58) avoided a three-game sweep.

Twenty-three-year-old Luis Perdomo (5-4) got the win after allowing four runs on six hits, two walks and four strikeouts through 5 2/3 innings.

Perdomo’s outing impressed fellow Dominican Edwin Encarnacion, who asked San Diego catcher Christian Bethancourt about him during the game.

“He’s like ‘Who is he? Where did he come from?’” Bethancourt said. “He said ‘Just tell him to keep doing it, he’s doing great. I’m glad to see kids have success like that.’”

Kevin Pillar had a two-run double, Darwin Barney hit a sacrifice fly, and Ezequiel Carrera drove in one for the Blue Jays (57-45).

Wednesday’s game started just over 12 hours after Toronto’s 12th inning walk-off victory on Tuesday night. Regulars Troy Tulowitzki, Russell Martin and Michael Saunders were given the day off.

Melvin Upton Jr., who was acquired by Toronto in a trade with San Diego on Tuesday, was in the starting lineup batting fourth and playing left field. Joaquin Benoit, acquired late Tuesday night from Seattle in exchange Drew Storen, pitched a scoreless ninth with two walks and two strikeouts. 

Benoit took a 7 a.m. flight out of Pittsburgh on Wednesday to get to Toronto in time for the afternoon start.

“I think it’s always important when you get a new player to get him in there the sooner the better,” Gibbons said. “He’s been around the league just like Upton, been around a while, but they’re in a new place, they want to fit in.”

Dickey started strong, facing the minimum three batters in the first despite a one-out walk to Wil Myers. He picked off Myers, his fourth pickoff of the season, to tie him for first in the majors with seven other pitchers.

The knuckleballer enjoyed another three-up three-down inning in the second, but his luck stopped there as San Diego managed runs in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth en route to a 7-1 lead.

“Starting the game I felt like I had some of the best stuff I’ve had all year and then I run into a couple innings where it kind of got away from me for a minute,” Dickey said.

Pillar cut the deficit to 7-3 with a two-out, two-run double, and scored on a single from Carrera in the bottom of the sixth, but Dickerson led off the eighth with a solo homer off Franklin Morales.

Dickey started the game on three day’s rest, replacing right-hander Marco Estrada, who dealt with a back injury prior to the all-star break. Estrada is scheduled to start Friday’s home game against the AL East leading Baltimore Orioles.

“We didn’t get the result we wanted but I have no doubts about that (switch),” Gibbons said. “I actually thought (Dickey) had a good knuckleball today.

“There were a lot of reasons we did it, it didn’t work out, but I don’t regret that at all.”

Melissa Couto, The Canadian Press