TORONTO - Jayson Nix belted a two-run homer and Jo-Jo Reyes won his first game in almost three years as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Cleveland Indians 11-1 at Rogers Centre on Monday night.
Nix put the Blue Jays on the board in the third inning when he sent a 2-2 pitch from Fausto Carmona into the second deck in left field. That was enough offence for Reyes (1-4), who went the distance as Toronto (28-26) won its fourth straight game.
The Blue Jays broke the game open in the fourth inning with seven runs off Carmona (3-6). The American League-leading Indians fell to 31-20 with the loss.
Reyes had gone 28 starts without a victory, tying him with Matt Keough (Oakland, 1978-'79) and Cliff Curtis (Boston, 1910-'11) for the longest winless stretch by a starter in major league history. Reyes last recorded a win on June 13, 2008, when his Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Angels.
The tall left-hander put runners on in each of the first three innings but managed to work his way out of trouble each time.
Michael Brantley led off the game with a single, but the Jays turned a nice 5-4-3 double play to snuff out the threat. The Indians opened the second with back-to-back singles before Reyes got two flyouts and a strikeout. In the third, Brantley reached on a walk before Reyes snagged a comebacker to start another double play.
Cleanup hitter Shelley Duncan hit a moon shot just inside the left-field foul pole in the fourth inning for the Indians' lone run. It was the 15th time in stadium history that a home run had reached the fifth deck. Washington Nationals slugger Jayson Werth -- then with the Philadelphia Phillies -- was the last to do it on June 27, 2009.
In the bottom half of the fourth, Toronto loaded the bases with nobody out. Rajai Davis hit a two-run double down the left-field line to make it 4-1, sending Eric Thames to third base. Yunel Escobar drew a one-out walk to load the bases again and Corey Patterson followed with a grounder that handcuffed second baseman Orlando Cabrera.
The veteran infielder bobbled the ball as he turned to throw to second and then paused in frustration. That was enough to allow the speedy Davis to break for home, and he followed Thames across the plate. Jose Bautista padded the lead with a two-run double and later came across when J.P. Arencibia lashed a double to left field.
Toronto greeted reliever Chad Durbin by touching him up for two insurance runs in the fifth inning. Durbin lasted two innings before he was replaced by left-hander Rafael Perez.
An announced crowd of 12,902 took in the action. The game took two hours 21 minutes to play.
