Green Hits Jays Past Tigers - CBS News

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Shawn Green has quietly become one of baseball's top hitters.

Green went 2-for-4 with a homer to extend his team-record hitting streak to 28 games as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Detroit Tigers 7-6 Saturday.

"Not every young player can come up and immediately put up the big numbers like Alex Rodriguez or Nomar Garciaparra can," said Green, who is in his fifth year in the majors. "(For) most of us, it takes a lot of years, a lot of hard work, a lot of failure and that's probably what makes it more special when you succeed."

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Down 4-2 in the fifth, Green hit a sharp grounder off the glove of second baseman Damion Easley, scoring Tony Batista. After Green stole second, David Segui followed with a two-out RBI single to tie the game at 4. It was Segui's first game with Toronto since being traded from Seattle on Wednesday.

Homer Bush, who had three hits and two RBIs, hit a tiebreaking RBI infield single off reliever Bryce Florie in the sixth to give Toronto a 5-4 lead. Green's 31st homer in the seventh made it 6-4.

"It was one of those days where I had a lot opportunities to do things, and everything seemed to work out today, so it looks good," said Green, who made a fine running catch in foul territory to end the game.

With the longest streak in the American League this season already under his belt, Green is only two games shy of the 30-game streak set by Arizona's Luis Gonzalez, and is half way to equaling Joe DiMaggio's 56-game streak.

"That's another month. Tat's amazing. That's got to be the toughest record to beat in baseball," Green said. "A 12-game hit streak is something, and if I do that I'm at 40."

Roy Halladay (8-4) pitched two scoreless innings for the win, as the Blue Jays improved to 7-1 against Detroit this season.

Billy Koch allowed an RBI double to Dean Palmer and a run-scoring single to Tony Clark. Juan Encarnacion then singled to put runners on the corners before Koch got Gabe Alvarez to fly out for his 20th save.

"We just came up a little short," Palmer said.

Dave Mlicki (5-10) gave up five runs and nine hits in 5 1-3 innings for the Tigers, who have lost five straight.

Tony Batista's 14th homer gave Toronto a 1-0 lead in the first, but the Tigers scored three runs in the second on Frank Catalanotto's RBI single, Gabe Kapler's sacrifice fly and Luis Polonia's run-scoring single.

After Bush hit an RBI single in the bottom half to make it 3-2, Karim Garcia RBI grounder's made it 4-2 in the third.

Jose Cruz Jr. hit his 11th homer in the eighth to complete the scoring.

Notes:

In his first three seasons the most at-bats Green had was 429.

A controversy continues to brew with the Blue Jays over who plays first base. Segui is considered one of the best defensive first baseman in the game, but Carlos Delgado is Toronto's first baseman. Delgado met with Toronto manager Jim Fregosi on Thursday to talk about his role. Segui was the DH on Saturday, while Delgado played first. "I'd rather play first, but I don't make up the lineup card," Segui said. "I don't think I've ever been the designated hitter." Fregosi said Delgado will DH Sunday.

The Blue Jays signed RHP John Hudek to a minor league contract. Hudek was released by the Atlanta Braves earlier this week.

Encarnacion, who missed the previous six games with an ankle srain, pinch hit in the eighth and went 1-for-2.

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