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Lind stays hot as Blue Jays top Tigers

May 7, 2011 - 7:19 AM Toronto, ON (Sports Network) - Adam Lind clubbed a solo shot and drove in two runs during the Toronto Blue Jays' 7-4 win over the Detroit Tigers to open a four-game set at Rogers Centre.

Corey Patterson and J.P. Arencibia each brought in two runs for the Blue Jays, who are back home following a 10-game road trip in which they compiled a 5-5 mark.

Toronto starter Jesse Litsch (3-2) was solid in 6 1/3 innings, allowing just four hits and one run while fanning nine batters to get the win.

Brandon Inge drove in two runs for Detroit, which entered the series with three straight wins to finish a four-game home set with the Yankees.

Phil Coke (1-5) was saddled with the loss, the Tigers' fourth straight on the road. The left-hander was touched for 11 hits and four runs in six innings.

"I thought he hung in there and battled and gave us a chance," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said of Coke.

The game got interesting late in the game when Detroit plated three runs in the ninth, thanks to Inge's two-RBI double and Scott Sizemore's run-scoring single. Brennan Boesch then came up to represent the game-tying run, but lined out to second to end the game and hand Frank Francisco his second save of the season.

Toronto got after Coke right away in the first inning.

Rajai Davis singled to start the home half. After a Patterson strikeout, the Jays reeled off four consecutive singles. Lind, Juan Rivera, and Arencibia all had RBI singles during the span for a 3-0 lead.

The Blue Jays punched in another run in the third when Rivera singled and scored from first on Arencibia's double into the right-center gap.

Detroit got on the board in the fourth after Victor Martinez crossed home on a Jhonny Peralta ground out to third, but Lind's solo shot got the run back for Toronto in the seventh.

The Blue Jays opened up the game in the eighth, with a bloop hit that dropped right in front of a diving Don Kelly. Both Edwin Encarnacion and Mike McCoy scored on the hit for a 7-1 lead that helped stave off the Tigers' late run.

"We needed every run we scored," Blue Jays manager John Farrell said.

Game Notes

Lind extended his hit streak to a season high 11 games...Detroit and Toronto split eight meetings a season ago, with each ballclub recording a 2-2 mark as the host...Toronto has won six of its last nine meetings to the Tigers at home...Detroit fell to 6-11 on the road this season.