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Detroit first baseman Miguel Cabrera and left fielder Jacque Jones celebrate after scoring during Detroit's four-run second inning against the Blue Jays on Monday.
Plagued by a pair of fielding errors and an offence that's disappeared, the Toronto Blue Jays dropped a 5-1 decision to the Detroit Tigers on Monday afternoon at Toronto's Rogers Centre.
Greg Zaun prevented a shutout in the bottom of the ninth with a line-drive home run to right off Tigers reliever Todd Jones, but the Jays continue to struggle at the plate.
During Toronto's 2-4 homestand, the team has scored just 19 runs and hit an abysmal 7-for-56 (.125) with runners in scoring position. That trend continued on Monday with the Jays going 0-8 with runners in scoring position.
"We haven't been scoring a ton of runs but we still like our offence," said manager John Gibbons. "[Scott] Rolen isn't that far away, he'll give us a boost. But you hit those spells, it's just how it goes."
In the game's early stages however, Toronto was done in by its defence.
Sean Marcum (2-1) walked Miguel Cabrera to start the second inning. Cabrera advanced to second after Jays shortstop David Eckstein booted a grounder by Jacques Jones, who reached first on the play.
After Edgar Renteria loaded the bases with a single, Ryan Rayburn knocked in two runs with a line-drive single to centre field. Rayburn was able to advance to second base on the play after Toronto's Alex Rios, filling in for regular Vernon Wells in centre field, committed an error.
"Maybe if we make that play, we may not have gotten the double play but we would have gotten an out," said Marcum. "You've just got to put it behind you and try to move on and damage control, limit them to one or two runs."
Instead, Detroit doubled its lead as Renteria scored from third on a sacrifice fly from Brandon Inge, while Rayburn plated Detroit's fourth run of the inning on a single from catcher Ivan Rodriguez.
Renteria added a solo home run off Marcum to lead off the sixth inning and give the Tigers a 5-0 cushion.
Marcum's day was done shortly after that. He allowed five runs (four earned) on five hits, with four walks and two strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings of work.
That lead was more than enough for Tigers starter Armando Galarraga (2-0), who pitched an efficient 5 1/3 innings of shutout baseball to earn the win. Galarraga allowed just three hits and struck out four with four walks.
Clay Rapada, Denny Bautista and former Blue Jay Aquilino Lopez also pitched in relief to preserve the Detroit lead.
"We've got the capability to score runs every day, we're just not getting that timely hitting and giving ourselves a chance," said Toronto first baseman Lyle Overbay. "When we were going good, we were executing, taking our walks, getting guys on, doing the little stuff to start those rallies.
"Right now we're not."
The win by the Tigers (7-13) gave them a split of their series with the Jays (10-10), who also continue to struggle at the Rogers Centre, where they are 5-7 this season.
The Blue Jays won't be able to improve on that home record for almost two weeks as they hit the road for nine games, beginning in Tampa Bay against the Rays on Tuesday.
