Spencer Torkelson kept swinging a hot bat, and the Tigers kept rolling right along with him.
Detroit powered past Toronto 10-1 on Tuesday night for its sixth straight victory, getting a three-run homer from Torkelson and five shutout innings from Drew Anderson to put the Blue Jays on the back foot early and never let them recover.
Anderson finished with two hits allowed, both singles, while striking out four and walking three. The outing gave him his first win since he beat Kansas City in relief on July 23, and it came at a time when Detroit needed every clean inning it could get. Michael Lorenzen, meanwhile, had a much rougher night for Toronto, giving up five runs and four hits in two innings.
Torkelson was right in the middle of everything. He went 2 for 4 with a walk, drove in three runs, stole a base and scored three times. His 24th home run came in the fourth inning, a 379-foot shot off Lorenzen that landed in the left-field bullpen after Lorenzen had retired the first two batters of the frame.
Detroit added to the damage in the same inning when Lorenzen walked Riley Greene and Eduardo Valencia. Max Clark then lined an RBI double, and Torkelson followed with the homer that broke the game open.
Clark ended up with two hits and two RBIs, while Kevin McGonigle reached base three times via walks as part of Detroit’s eight free passes.
The Tigers kept tacking on late, too. Torkelson doubled off Spencer Arrighetti in the eighth and came around from second when Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk threw wildly to third on a pickoff attempt.
Clark scored in front of him on the play. Then Hao-Yu Lee added a solo homer in the ninth, his ninth of the season, off Joe Mantiply.
Toronto’s night included a debut, with Brendan Cellucci striking out three over 1 2/3 innings in his first major league appearance after Braydon Fisher opened and worked four outs while navigating a pair of first-inning walks.
The loss was Toronto’s sixth in nine games, and it dropped the club two games behind Cleveland in the race for the final American League wild card after the Guardians rallied in the ninth to beat the Chicago White Sox 7-6. Detroit, meanwhile, sits 4 1/2 games behind Cleveland with three teams in between.
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