Litsch Ks career-high 9 in win over Tigers
Posted May 6, 2011 10:25 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – Back at the Rogers Centre after their second 10-game road trip of the young season, the Toronto Blue Jays began tucking into their surplus of home games with an efficient dissection of the Detroit Tigers.
Jesse Litsch pitched into the seventh inning while striking out a career-high nine batters, J.P. Arencibia knocked in a pair of runs and teamed up on a key defensive play with the resurgent Juan Rivera, who also collected three hits with an RBI and a run scored in a 7-4 victory.
Adam Lind extended his hitting streak to 11 games with an RBI single that opened the scoring in a three-run first, and added a solo blast in the seventh as the Blue Jays (15-17) opened a six-game homestand on a positive note after dropping four of their last five on the road.
Corey Patterson’s two-run double in the eighth was icing as the Jays ran their home record to 7-5, against an 8-12 road mark.
The Tigers (15-18), fresh off taking three of four against the New York Yankees following a seven-game losing streak, offered little resistance before a crowd of 19,711.
Litsch (3-2) was a big reason for that, allowing just a run on four hits and three walks over 6.1 innings, but things might have turned out much differently if not for the work of his catcher and left-fielder in the first.
With two on and two-out, Litsch gave up a single to Victor Martinez that Rivera collected in left and quickly relayed home. The throw pulled Arencibia away from the plate but he dove back the other way to tag Brennan Boesch before he crossed to end the inning.
Buoyed by the big play, the Blue Jays went to work on Phil Coke (1-5) in the bottom of the frame on consecutive run-scoring singles by Lind, Rivera and Arencibia to open up a 3-0 lead.
Litsch was never in much trouble after that, striking out the side in third and fifth innings en route to his career high in strikeouts. His previous career-high of eight was established Sept. 23, 2008 against the Yankees.
The only run against him came in the fourth, when Jhonny Peralta’s weak grounder to third with runners on second and third brought home Victor Martinez.
He left after Peralta’s one-out single in the seventh and the bullpen handled matters from there. Jason Frasor recorded two outs in the seventh, Jon Rauch followed with a clean eighth and Shawn Camp allowed Brandon Inge’s two-run double and Scott Sizemore’s RBI single before Frank Francisco got the final out for his second save.
Arencibia made it 4-0 with an RBI double in the third while Lind’s seventh homer of the season, a long blast to centre, made it 5-1.
Patterson’s bloop double in the eighth made it 7-1.
NOTES: With Coke starting, Blue Jays manager John Farrell decided to sit David Cooper against the tough lefty. That allowed Edwin Encarnacion to start at DH and Mike McCoy to play at third base. McCoy and Cooper may be on the roster bubble with second basemen Aaron Hill set to be activated from the disabled list Sunday. Hill was 0-for-3 with a walk and an error in Dunedin’s 2-1 win over Clearwater on Friday. … RF Jose Bautista (neck stiffness) is also on track to return Sunday, which would give the Blue Jays a strong roster for the first time in weeks.
