Cleveland, OH (Sports Network) - Jake Westbrook pitched six-plus strong innings and Jayson Nix brought in the go-ahead run with a suicide squeeze in the sixth, as Cleveland held off Toronto for a 2-1 win to open a four-game set at Progressive Field.
Westbrook (5-4) surrendered six hits and a run with one walk and four strikeouts to pick up the win. Austin Kearns provided an RBI single in the game's first frame for Cleveland, which won its second straight game on the heels of a seven-game skid.
A combination of Joe Smith, Rafael Perez, Chris Perez and Kerry Wood allowed the one-run margin to hold up over the final three innings. Wood earned his seventh save in the process.
Toronto's Ricky Romero (6-4) received the hard-luck loss despite giving up only two runs on seven hits in seven innings. He walked three and fanned two.
Jose Bautista had two hits and doubled in the lone run for Toronto, which has six losses in its last eight games.
Both sides traded runs in the game's opening frame. Back-to-back doubles from Alex Gonzalez and Bautista chased home the only run for Toronto. Vernon Wells' single left runners at the corners with one out, but Westbrook bounced back to get the next two batters.
Carlos Santana doubled with two down in the home half and Kearns laced a single to right for a 1-1 game.
Things remained that way until the sixth when Romero hit Travis Hafner with a pitch to start the inning, and Jhonny Peralta doubled to put two in scoring position with nobody out.
Matt LaPorta failed to advance the runners with a groundout, but Nix laid down a perfect bunt to the left side of the infield. Romero tried in vain to flip the ball home to John Buck as Hafner slid in safely with the go-ahead run.
Lyle Overbay started the Toronto seventh with a base hit and Smith came on for Westbrook. He got two quick outs and Rafael Perez recorded the third to strand Overbay on the basepaths.
Wells hit into a double play to end the eighth against Chris Perez and Wood worked around a two-out single in the ninth, fanning Buck to end the game with pinch-runner Nick Green at second.
Romero hadn't allowed an earned run in either of his two previous starts and has surrendered two runs or fewer in five of his last six starts overall, but is just 2-2 in that time...The Blue Jays dropped two of three in Philadelphia over the weekend in a home series moved to the visiting park because of the G20 Summit in Toronto...The Indians have won just three times in their last 14 games overall...Toronto swept a three-game set from the Indians back in early May and has won six of its last eight in Cleveland despite Monday's setback...Wells and Overbay each had two hits for the Jays...Nix and LaPorta collected two hits apiece for the Tribe.