Music: {allcanada} Hill of a win

Friday, August 27, 2010

{allcanada} Hill of a win

TORONTO -- Aaron Hill hasn't had much to get excited about at the plate this season, but the Blue Jays second baseman came through when it counted Friday.

Hill's looping RBI single in the 11th inning to score pinch-runner John McDonald was the difference as Toronto escaped with a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers.

After Detroit reliever Phil Coke (7-3) struck out Adam Lind to start the inning, John Buck singled and Fred Lewis walked. McDonald replaced Buck at second and scored easily after Hill connected on a 0-1 change-up to give Toronto (67-61) the victory.

"I'm longtime overdue from worrying about personal stuff, it's just finishing out strong with these next five weeks and we needed that game tonight," said Hill, who finished the night 2-for-5. "It was a big game for us."

Hill is batting just .206 this season, a far cry from his 2009 totals when posted a .286 average to go along with career highs in home runs and RBIs.

"He's certainly going to go home with a good feeling tonight," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. "It was a big hit for us, a big game for us."

Jose Bautista, with his league-leading 42nd, and Lind hit solo home runs for Toronto, while Miguel Cabrera went deep for Detroit (64-65).

Both teams failed to take advantage of their opportunities the 10th. Toronto reliever Shawn Camp (4-2) got out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the inning before Detroit's Ryan Palmer got Vernon Wells swinging with two aboard in the bottom half. Camp also pitched a scoreless 11th for the Blue Jays.

Detroit tied things in the bottom of the ninth off Toronto closer Kevin Gregg. Austin Jackson tripled to centre to start the inning. After Gregg struck out Ryan Raburn, Johnny Damon singled to right to score Jackson and knot things 2-2.

Gregg's fifth blown save of the season came before a crowd of 20,298 at Rogers Centre.

Lind took Tigers starter Justin Verlander to deep centre on a 2-0 pitch leading off the seventh inning for his 18th home run of the season to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead.

"I've just got to make a better pitch there," Verlander said. "That was up and away in a fastball count.

"With the stuff I had tonight, I should have given us a little bit of a better chance. That homer to Lind, I'm pretty disappointed in that."

Bautista gave Toronto a 1-0 lead in the fourth with a homer on Toronto's first hit of the night.

Verlander got Yunel Escobar on a grounder to lead off the inning, before Bautista clobbered a 2-0 pitch into the bleachers in left. Bautista is now just five home runs shy of George Bell's club-record of 47 set in 1987. Toronto has gone deep 195 times this season, tops in the majors.

Verlander settled down after Bautista's homer, getting the next two batters in the fourth and striking out the side in the fifth. After getting the first two outs in the sixth, Escobar singled to right-centre and Bautista doubled to left, but Wells grounded out weakly to second to end the inning.

Verlander tossed eight innings of five-hit ball to go along with eight strikeouts.

"This was one of the best games he's pitched all year," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We just had too many opportunities we let get away."

Detroit got to Blue Jays starter Shaun Marcum in the sixth when Cabrera homered off the foul pole in left for his 32nd of the year. After Brennan Boesch grounded out, Jhonny Peralta singled to centre and went first to third on Don Kelly's liner to right. But Marcum struck out Brandon Inge looking and got Alex Avila to fly to centre to end the threat.

Marcum allowed eight hits while striking out four in six innings of work.

"We had our work cut out for us with Verlander on the mound," Marcum said. "The guys came out and did whatever they could to try and get some runs off of him but he's one of the better pitchers in this game.

"I tried to do whatever I could to keep us in the game and was able to do that for six (innings) and the bullpen did a great job of keeping us there."

Marcum added that Hill's struggles this season aren't for lack of trying.

"He's been feeling better at the plate. He's had some bad luck this year," Marcum added. "He's caught some bad breaks but he's hanging in there, he comes ready to play and he's giving us everything he's got."