Blue Jays End Skid With Rout

Darrin Fletcher drove in five runs and Joey Hamilton gave up only three hits in six scoreless innings as the Toronto Blue Jays ended a seven-game losing streak with an 11-0 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Friday night.

Fletcher had a three-run double in the fifth and added a two-run homer as the Blue Jays scored five in the eighth. His five runs batted in matched his career high.

Willie Greene added a two-run homer, Tony Batista hit a solo homer and Carlos Delgado had a two-run single and an RBI double for the Blue Jays, who have won 18 of their last 24 road games.

Hamilton (6-7) did not allow a runner past second base in a stark turnaround of his previous start, a 13-5 loss last Saturday to the A’s at Toronto in which he gave up eight runs in a third of an inning--the shortest start of his career.

The loss kept the A’s a game behind the Boston Red Sox, 4-3 losers against the Texas Rangers, in the battle for the American League wild-card spot. The Blue Jays pulled within one game of the A’s and two games of the Red Sox.

It was the first win this season for the Blue Jays against the A’s. Oakland swept a pair of three-game series at Toronto this season, including one last weekend.

Shannon Stewart led off the game with a double and scored on Delgado’s two-out double. Greene hit his 11th homer in the fourth. Fletcher’s bases-loaded double in the fifth came on the first pitch from reliever Tim Worrell.