Detroit @ Toronto preview

Last Meeting ( Aug 26, 2010 ) Detroit 7, Toronto 1

The Detroit Tigers may want to play Jhonny Peralta every day for the remainder of the season.

The veteran infielder looks to continue his hot streak Friday as the Tigers resume their four-game weekend series with the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre. The Tigers come in having won six of their last seven games, while the Blue Jays have dropped four of their last six.

Detroit is mired at the .500 mark, nine games back of the Minnesota Twins in the American League Central and well out of the wild-card race with just over a month left in the season. Yet, with the way Peralta has played of late, the Tigers might not want to count themselves out of the division race quite yet.

Peralta, who came to Detroit in a deadline deal with the Cleveland Indians, struggled for most of the season but has turned it on lately. The 28-year-old is 7-for-14 with a homer and 10 RBIs over his past four games.

His hot bat helped the Tigers put together a five-game winning streak that brought them back to .500, but he sat out Wednesday as Detroit fell 4-3 to Kansas City. He was reinserted into the lineup Thursday against the Jays and belted a three-run homer as part of a four-RBI performance in a 7-1 Tigers win.

Peralta has six home runs and 18 RBIs in 25 games with Detroit. He had just seven homers in 91 games with the Indians prior to the trade.

Toronto will try to slow Peralta and the Tigers down behind the arm of Shaun Marcum (11-7). The 28-year-old has scuffled in August, going just 1-3 with a 5.88 ERA in a stretch that has put a damper on what has been an otherwise solid season.

Marcum was decent in his previous outing, allowing three runs on just four hits over seven innings but ultimately dropping a 5-0 decision to the Boston Red Sox. It was his second loss to Boston in an 11-day span, with a one-hit complete-game victory against Oakland sandwiched in between.

Marcum is 2-1 lifetime against the Tigers with a 4.71 ERA over 21 innings. He last faced them July 24, when he surrendered two runs over 5 2/3 innings to earn the victory in a 3-2 Jays triumph.

The Tigers respond with hard-throwing ace Justin Verlander (14-8), who will try to build off his first bit of success against Toronto. Verlander faced the Jays on July 22 and allowed two runs over eight innings to pick up his first career win against Toronto – the only American League team he had never beaten to that point.

Verlander was sensational in his previous start, allowing one run over eight innings in an 8-1 drubbing of the Indians. Peralta was a catalyst in that one, driving in three runs against his former team.

Friday's game pits the top two home-run hitters in the American League against one another for a second straight night.

Toronto's Jose Bautista belted his major league-leading 41st home run in Thursday's loss. Detroit's Miguel Cabrera was kept in the ballpark to leave him tied for second with Chicago's Paul Konerko at 31 homers.