DETROIT -- Aaron Sanchez gave the Toronto Blue Jays just what they needed, a solid start from a pitcher who could be a pillar in their rotation.

Jose Bautista drove in two runs with a home run plus a sacrifice fly to back six innings of one-run ball by Sanchez on Friday night while the Blue Jays got their 10-game post All-Star break road trip off to a successful start with a 7-2 victory over the punchless Detroit Tigers.

Sanchez (1-2) was making only his seventh start of the season due to a blister on his right middle finger.

He allowed a double plus six singles to a Detroit offense that had been without a home run since Dixon Machado's in the second inning on July 6 until Andrew Romine hit his fourth home run with one out in the ninth off reliever Jeff Beliveau.

Between the home runs, Detroit had just six doubles among 36 hits in 41 innings. Sanchez walked two and struck out four.

"He was really good," Toronto manager John Gibbons said. "He looked good. He was popping it pretty good, threw some good breaking balls. He looked like the old guy. That's a good sign.

"He's a big part of our team. We need him. He's definitely the freshest guy out there. His finger feels good. It wouldn't surprise me if he got on a nice little roll."

Toronto (42-47) sealed it in the eighth with three runs, one when Russell Martin drew a four-pitch, two-out walk from reliever Blaine Hardy and two more when Josh Donaldson lined a 3-2 single to left. That put the Blue Jays up 7-1.

Danny Barnes gave up one single in the seventh, Joe Biagini got three outs in the eighth and Beliveau finished the ninth to wrap it up.

Bautista, in his 19th game as the leadoff hitter, greeted Tigers reliever Warwick Saupold in the seventh with his 15th home run, upping the Blue Jays' lead to 4-1.

Kevin Pillar drew a sixth-inning walk on a full count pitch from Detroit reliever Shane Greene with the bases loaded to increase the Toronto lead to 3-1.

"You have to throw strikes," Detroit manager Brad Ausmus said. "You can't walk 10 guys and win games in the major leagues."

The Tigers got runners at first and third with nobody out in their fifth on singles by Jose Iglesias and Alex Presley, but the Blue Jays escaped with just one unearned run scoring thanks to Miguel Cabrera hitting into an inning-ending double play.

The run scored when third baseman Donaldson caught Alex Avila's line drive but threw the ball wildly to first for an error that let both runners move up, shaving Toronto's lead to 2-1.

"That was a lot better than recent starts in my book," Sanchez said. "There was a lot of weak contact. I felt like at the beginning I was still trying to find the zone a little bit. My release point.

"It was ball, strike, ball, strike, the first couple innings. That kind of got my pitch count up. Then I felt like I kind of settled down, got into a groove, got into the sixth."

Steve Pearce pounded a 2-0 fastball from Justin Verlander (5-7) leading off the Blue Jays' fifth for his seventh home, breaking a scoreless tie.

Pillar reached second when J.D. Martinez dropped his fly ball near the foul line for an error, advanced on a groundout to short and scored an unearned run on Bautista's first-pitch sacrifice fly to center, giving Toronto a 2-0 lead.

"You just can't have that many deep counts," Ausmus said. "You have to give Toronto some credit, especially against Verlander, but when you are pitching from behind every time, you are going to keep turning over the lineup and your defense is going to get bored from being out there so long."

Verlander threw 114 pitches in his 5 1/3 innings, running up 2-2 counts on seven batters and 3-2 on six. He struck out five and two of his three walks came to the last two batters he faced.

Detroit is 7-15 in its last 22 games to fall to 10 below .500 (39-49) for the season and increase the likelihood it will be a seller by the time the non-waiver trade deadline is reached July 31.

NOTES: The Blue Jays have tabbed LHP Francisco Liriano and RHP Marco Estrada to work the Saturday/Sunday games. ... Tigers LHP Daniel Norris is eligible to come off the disabled list (groin) on Tuesday, but whether he will start or not is up in the air, according to manager Brad Ausmus. ... Tigers 2B Ian Kinsler reported from the All-Star break with the flu and was not in the starting lineup. ... Toronto had its fewest wins at the All-Star break (41) since 2004. Detroit was at its lowest win total (39) since 2003.