Blue Jays extend Tigers' losing streak

9/12/2009

DETROIT - Aaron Hill had four hits and the Toronto Blue Jays extended the Detroit Tigers' slump with a 6-4 victory Friday night.

The AL Central leaders have lost four straight to Kansas City and Toronto after a six-game winning streak. The Blue Jays won for just the third time in their last 13 road games.

Brian Tallet (7-9) picked up his second straight win, allowing three runs and seven hits in 61/3 innings. He struck out seven, matching a season high. Three relievers finished, with Jason Frasor pitching the ninth for his ninth save.

Nate Robertson (1-2) took the loss, allowing two runs and six hits in 32/3 innings. He walked five.

Toronto loaded the bases with two out in the first, but Rod Barajas flew out to the warning track in left to end the inning, and the Blue Jays stranded two more runners in each of the next two innings.

The Tigers took advantage in the third, taking a 1-0 lead when Gerald Laird doubled and scored on Ryan Raburn's sacrifice fly.

Toronto broke through in the fourth, chasing Robertson with a pair of runs. With two out, Adam Lind's single brought home Randy Ruiz, and Vernon Wells followed with an RBI double.

Wells made it 3-1 with a sixth-inning sacrifice fly off Armando Galarraga, and Tallet got out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the inning. Barajas homered in the seventh, and after a Edwin Encarnacion single, Ruiz's two-run homer off Ryan Perry gave the Blue Jays a 6-1 lead.

Detroit rallied for three runs on five hits and a sacrifice fly in the seventh, but Jeremy Accardo struck out Brandon Inge to end the inning with runners on the corners.

NOTES: Curtis Granderson hit seventh for the Tigers - the first time in his career that he had batted in that spot and the lowest he has hit since batting eighth on June 22, 2008. ... Robertson left the game with a strained groin and will undergo further tests today. ... A small child ran on the field between the seventh and eighth innings and picked up the ball sitting behind the mound before returning to the stands.