George Sipple

Detroit Free Press

TORONTO – The offense and the bullpen were to blame for the latest Detroit Tigers’ loss, not Mike Pelfrey.

The Tigers lost 6-0 to the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night at the Rogers Centre.

Pelfrey fell to 2-8. He allowed one run on six hits over six innings. He walked three and struck out two and went deeper than Blue Jays lefty J.A. Happ, who entered the game with an 11-3 record.

Pelfrey has allowed two runs over his last 12 1/3 innings.

“Pelfrey pitched well, Happ pitched well,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. “They got to our bullpen. We didn’t do much offensively. Pretty much that sums it up.”

Happ allowed six hits over 5 2/3 scoreless innings for the Blue Jays. He walked one and struck out nine.

The Blue Jays scored four runs in the seventh inning off Kyle Ryan and Bobby Parnell.

Ryan gave up an RBI double to Kevin Pillar and Parnell allowed a three-run home run with two outs to Edwin Encarnacion.

Mark Lowe gave up a run in the eighth inning on a sacrifice fly by Ex-Tiger Ezequiel Carrera that brought home Pillar.

The only run Pelfrey allowed came in the fifth inning, after he gave up a lead-off double to Darwin Barney and single to Carrera. Barney scored when Josh Donaldson grounded into a 5-4-3 double play.

“Command really wasn’t that great tonight,” Pelfrey said. “I think I was pretty excited to pitch. Know how good of a lineup that is so I knew I had to bring it and probably had too much adrenaline and overthrowing.

“Lot of 3-2 counts, a lot of walks early. I didn’t know if I was going to make it through five cause of the pitch count.”

But Pelfrey started throwing more strikes in the fourth and fifth innings and went on to throw 103 pitches over six innings.

Pelfrey said his change-up wasn’t as good as his last outing.

“I thought it was still effective,” he said. “I don’t know, maybe it was on the scouting report this time around.”

It was the seventh time in Pelfrey’s 17 starts the Tigers have scored three runs or less.

“I think everybody loves run support,” Pelfrey said. “You have to give that guy (Happ) credit on the other side. That’s his 12th win in the first half. That’s pretty good. He’s been pretty good.

“I go out there and give everything I have. The offense does the same thing. Whatever happens at the end happens. Try not to worry about it. My job is to put up zeroes. I try to do that the best I can.”

The Tigers did get base hits in each of the first three innings. But Happ struck out six of the first nine batters he faced, including Ian Kinsler and Miguel Cabrera in the first inning. After giving up a single to Nick Castellanos to lead off the second, Happ struck out the next three batters: Justin Upton, James McCann and Mike Aviles.

Kinsler struck out for the second time in the third inning, giving Happ four consecutive strikeouts.

Cabrera led off with a single in the sixth, but Victor Martinez popped up to shortstop after a 10-pitch at-bat. Castellanos then struck out for the second time.

“He commanded his heater well,” Castellanos said of Happ. “Didn’t really miss over the plate too much.“

Happ’s night ended after he gave up his first walk of the game – to Upton, who had struck out in his first two at-bats.

The Blue Jays brought in right-hander Jesse Chavez to face McCann, who singled to left to load the bases with two outs. Ausmus had left-handed hitter Steven Moya available on the bench, but stayed with Aviles, who grounded to short for a force out to end the threat.

Lefties are batting .264 against Chavez this season, while righties are batting .232. For his career, righties have hit .267 against him, while lefties have hit .263.

Asked if the splits factored into his decision to stick with Aviles, Ausmus said no.

“What was that the sixth inning?,” Ausmus said. “Yeah, probably not going to pinch hit in the sixth inning.”

• Tigers' Jordan Zimmermann: Neck was getting 'worse and worse'

• Tigers recall Matt Boyd to start Saturday, send Parnell to Toledo

Contact George Sipple: gsipple@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @georgesipple.

Download our Tigers Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!