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Stairs' homer sends Blue Jays to fifth straight win

May 6, 2008 - 4:24 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- The Toronto Blue Jays expected great things from their pitching staff this season. What they have been doing lately, however, is more than the team could have imagined.

Matt Stairs broke open a scoreless tie in the seventh inning with a solo homer Monday, leading the Blue Jays to their fifth straight win, a 1-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

Toronto entered Monday's four-game series finale with a 3.37 team ERA, the third-best mark in the majors. But since April 26, the Blue Jays have handcuffed their opponents, allowing the opposition to bat just .156 (43-for-275) over the last nine games, leading to a staff ERA of 1.02 in that time.

Everybody's doing great," Toronto starter Dustin McGowan said. "It's one of the most contagious things. You just see them pitch well and you want to pitch well to be a part of it. It's going good right now for us."

Neither team could mount any offense until the bottom of the seventh, when Stairs sent a hanging curveball from Chicago starter Javier Vazquez (3-3) just over the fence in right field for his fourth home run of the season.

"It was an awkward swing," Stairs said. "It's one of those things where he's such a tough pitcher that I've had some success in my whole career against. He's been eating me up the whole time I faced him. Just got lucky, made good contact for a 1-0 win."

That homer was the only run support McGowan (2-2) needed in his best outing of the season, retiring 16 straight hitters between the third and eighth inning before Juan Uribe hit a broken-bat single to left, ending his evening.

The righthander yielded only four hits and struck out six over 7 1/3 innings before giving way to reliever Jesse Carlson in the eighth.

Carlson was removed after plucking the only batter he faced, pinch hitter A.J. Pierzynski, in favor of reliever Shawn Camp, who retired the final two batters to end the threat.

Closer B.J. Ryan walked the bases loaded with one out in the ninth, but was the lucky recipient of a fortunate bounce. He reacted quickly when Pablo Ozuna bounced a grounder right at him, allowing him to turn a 1-2-3 double play for his fifth save in as many chances.

Vazquez took the hard-luck loss despite matching his season-high with nine strikeouts, yielding Stairs' homer among his eight hits over 7 2/3 innings.

"He had great stuff all night," White Sox catcher Toby Hall said. "He's been pitching his tail off; it's tough we're not giving run support. That's just something we've got to battle through and keep us in those games and things will work themselves out."

While Toronto's pitching has been very strong, the White Sox's offense has been stymied during their six-game losing streak. The Blue Jays shut them out twice during the four-game series, allowing just five runs in the process.