Jays fall to Padres in 17th inning

Clayton Richard earned his first win of the season by pitching two innings in relief and Jesus Guzman singled home the winning run with two outs in the 17th to give the San Diego Padres a 4-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays early Saturday.

Richard (1-5), who had been scheduled to start Saturday night, came on to start the 16th. He came in 0-5 with an 8.35 ERA in seven starts and recently spent time on the disabled list with an intestinal virus. He gave up one hit and struck out two in two innings in his first relief appearance since May 2009 with the Chicago White Sox.

Rookie Jedd Gyorko’s third hit of the night, a one-out single, caromed off third base into shallow left. Gyorko was sacrificed to second by Richard and scored when Guzman singled up the middle off Todd Redmond (0-1).

The winning hit came three innings after the 14th-inning stretch. The game lasted 4 hours, 58 minutes.

The Blue Jays and Padres weren’t alone playing deep into the night, though. After nearly five hours of rain delays, the Tampa Bay-Cleveland game ended about 20 minutes before this one did — one night after the Royals beat the Cardinals in a rain-delayed game that finished at 3:14 a.m. CDT.

Four Padres relievers retired 17 Blue Jays batters before Adam Lind singled leading off the 13th, his third hit.

Toronto’s Colby Rasmus had a two-run homer among his season-high four hits and robbed San Diego’s Yonder Alonso of a solo shot.

The Blue Jays took a 3-0 lead after four innings on two home runs off Jason Marquis. Rasmus hit a two-run drive to straightaway centre with one out in the second. His ninth homer came after J.P. Arencibia walked.

In the bottom of the inning, Rasmus made a leaping catch to rob Alonso of a homer. Alonso doffed his batting helmet toward Rasmus.

Edwin Encarnacion lined Marquis’ first pitch of the fourth into the balcony on the second level of the Western Metal Supply Co. brick warehouse in the left-field corner, his 15th.

The Padres tied it at 3 in the fifth. Gyorko hit a two-run double to right-centre with one out, went to third on the throw home and scored on Arencibia’s errant throw to third. Carlos Quentin was hit by a pitch on the back of his left hand leading off the inning and Alonso followed with a single.

Toronto failed to take advantage of two bases-loaded situations. Marquis got two straight outs after allowing Encarnacion’s homer but then loaded the bases on two singles and a walk before striking out pitcher Chad Jenkins.

Marquis loaded the bases with one out in the sixth by allowing two singles and a walk before making way for Tyson Ross. Melky Cabrera then grounded into a 3-2-3 double play.

Marquis, making his 300th career start, got his second straight no-decision after a five-start winning streak. He allowed three runs and seven hits in 5 1-3 innings, struck out six and walked four.

Jenkins went five innings for the third straight start, allowing three runs, two earned, on three hits. He struck out two and walked none.