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Jays put hot bats to the test again vs. Indians

May 31, 2011 - 3:09 PM (Sports Network) - A streaking offense helped Blue Jays starter Jo-Jo Reyes win for the first time in nearly three years. Toronto will hope to continue to swing a hot bat this evening and notch a fifth straight victory in the middle portion of a three-game series with the struggling Cleveland Indians at Rogers Centre.

Toronto has plated 33 runs over its past three games, following up 13-4 victory over the White Sox on Sunday with last night's 11-1 triumph. The surge helped make a winner out of Reyes, who went the distance and allowed just one run to pick up his first victory since June 13, 2008 and end a string of 28 straight winless starts that matched Matt Keough and Cliff Curtis for the longest such streak in major league history.

"Fitting that it was a complete game to end the much-publicized streak," Blue Jays manager John Farrell said. "[Reyes] kept his pitch count down and kept the game in check ... Just an outstanding game on his part."

Jayson Nix hit a two-run homer, while Rajai Davis, Jose Bautista and Corey Patterson also drove in two runs each. The Blue Jays' current four-game win streak is their second-longest of the season, behind only a string of six straight victories from May 10-16. Toronto is 13-6 in its last 19 games and is two games back of first place in the American League East.

Bautista is hitting .450 (9-for-20) over his last six games with a homer and six RBI, upping his season average to .356. That is the second-highest average in baseball and he still leads the majors with 20 homers.

Yunel Escobar, meanwhile, extended his hitting streak to 11 straight games and is batting .341 (15-for-44) over his run with a pair of homers and six RBI.

While the Blue Jays are rolling at the plate, the Indians continue to struggle both on offense and on the mound. The owners of the best record in the AL (31-20) have lost five of six and have been outscored 44-12 in that span.

Fausto Carmona was the latest victim last night as he was hammered for nine runs -- seven earned -- over just four innings of work.

Shelley Duncan supplied Cleveland's lone run with one swing of the bat with a fourth-inning homer into the fifth deck in left field. It was the 14th home run to reach that deck at Rogers Centre.

Grady Sizemore was given the night off on Monday, but is expected to start in center field on Tuesday. Sizemore has played in three games since returning from a right knee injury and served as the club's designated hitter over the weekend. He went 0-for-12 in those games with seven strikeouts.

The Blue Jays' Brandon Morrow will try to duplicate his last outing this evening and hope that Toronto can continue its offensive surge as well.

Versus the White Sox on Thursday, Morrow pitched a season-best seven innings and allowed just a run on four hits and two walks with five strikeouts. He left with the game tied and Toronto lost 3-1, giving Morrow his second no- decision in a row.

"I really just tried to power the ball down in the zone," said Morrow, who is 2-2 with a 4.38 earned run average in seven starts this season. "I felt like I was throwing straight downhill all game. I had some better movement on my fastball and just kept it down. When I was missing, I was missing down and that's a better spot for me."

The 26-year-old righty is 1-2 with a 4.58 ERA in eight career meetings with the Indians, including a pair of starts.

Cleveland starter Mitch Talbot was not greeted with a warm reception by the Red Sox in his last start and he'll hope to rebound tonight.

Making his third start of the season and first since April 11 due to a right elbow strain, Talbot was drilled for eight runs -- seven in the first inning alone -- on 12 hits over just three innings of a loss to Boston on Wednesday. He fell to 1-1 on the season and saw his ERA jump from 1.46 to 5.87.

"I wasn't making my pitches first off," Talbot said. "I wasn't hitting my spots. It was almost like even if I was, they were going to find a hole somewhere. It was just kind of one of those days."

The 27-year-old will face the Blue Jays for the second time in his career after losing to them on May 3 of last year. Talbot yielded five runs on eight hits over eight innings of work and allowed three homers, including one to Bautista.

The Indians have won six of their last eight versus the Blue Jays and took two of three in the lone meeting at Rogers Centre last year.