Music: {allcanada} Reyes puts an end to winless skid

TORONTO -- Goats are not commonly sought, or easy to find in Toronto.

So, in the hours before Jo-Jo Reyes made his start for Blue Jays on Monday night, teammate Brandon Morrow took to Twitter seeking help in tracking down a cloven-hoofed beast.

"We need for for..uh...something special before JoJo takes the mound... A chicken may work in a pinch," the hard-throwing right-hander wrote.

Whether or not a bovid or fowl found, the Blue Jays certainly did something special for their hard-luck left-hander, providing him with ample run support, tremendous defence, and most importantly after a record-tying drought of 28 starts, a win.

And what a win it was.

Reyes was full value for his first victory since June 13, 2008, when he beat the Los Angeles Angels as a member of the Atlanta Braves, throwing his career complete game in an 11-1 thrashing of the Cleveland Indians.

Jayson Nix began the onslaught with a two-run homer in the third against the team that discarded him at spring training's end, and everyone in the lineup but Juan Rivera reached base as the Blue Jays (28-26) won their fourth in a row before a crowd of 12,902.

Rajai Davis and Jose Bautista paced the decisive seven-run fourth with a two-run double apiece, Corey Patterson added a run-scoring fielder's choice that second baseman Orlando Cabrera bobbled and then held on to with his back to the play, allowing Davis to come around from second, and J.P. Arencibia added an RBI double to give Reyes an 11-1 lead.

For good measure, the Blue Jays tacked on a couple more runs in the fifth on Yunel Escobar's base hit and Patterson's sacrifice fly.

The offence was like an embarrassment of riches for Reyes (1-4), who matched the big-league record of 28 consecutive starts without win established by Cliff Curtis of the Boston Braves in 1910-11 and matched by Matt Keough with Oakland in 1978-79.

In his 10 previous starts this season, the Blue Jays totaled just 39 runs. Then they put up more than 25 per cent of that total in a single night against the Indians (31-20), owners of the American League's best record but now losers in five of their past six.

Reyes didn't completely cruise through this one, getting help from three double plays turned behind him. And the solo shot he surrendered to Shelly Duncan in the fourth, the 15th homer to reach the upper deck at Rogers Centre, might have rattled him.

Instead, he showed a steady poise on the mound and an ability to escape jams that has at times eluded him through his 10 previous winless starts for the Blue Jays. He allowed eight hits and four walks with four strikeouts, and had the crowd chanting his name as he struck out Jack Hannahan to end it.

A putrid Fausto Carmona (3-6) helped too, as he allowed nine runs, seven earned, on nine hits and two walks in four innings.

Reyes' streak gained national attention in the United States when it hit 28 with last Wednesday's 7-3 loss to the New York Yankees, but the 26-year-old has handled it all with a quiet dignity and good humour.

His teammates tried to have fun with it, giving him a Ricky Vaughn inspired haircut before a recent outing against Houston, in which he left with a 2-0 lead after seven innings but watched the bullpen fritter it away.

Manager John Farrell wasn't aware of the day's shenanigans – "The chicken is in my office, I don't know where the goat is," he quipped – but added the streak wasn't high on his priority list.

"I've not talked to him about it," he said. "I think today's player knows exactly what's going on and if they don't they're going to be reminded. We haven't talked internally about what he's gone through, we continue to focus on his work to prepare to start every start he's made so far."

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LEAN ON LIND: The Blue Jays are eyeing a weekend return for first baseman Adam Lind (lower back) after reporting positive progress from his first at-bats as the DH Monday in extended spring training.

Lind tripled and walked in four trips to the plate, a day after running the bases with no problems.

He'll DH again Tuesday, and barring any setbacks, he'll play in at least a couple of games in the field with single-A Dunedin. The Blue Jays would like to get him 15-20 at-bats before he returns.

"I say this with cautious optimism, that he would return sometime when we go into Baltimore," said Farrell.

To ease the load on his back, he and Juan Rivera will share duties at first base initially.

"I don't want to say platoon, but a little bit of a rotation in there at first base and the DH slot just to make sure that Adam is not overtaxed just from going from three-to-four weeks of inactivity to some DH games and all of a sudden run him to first base every day," said Farrell. "Juan has shown to be very capable at the position, so we've got the ability to balance the physical load."