TORONTO — There was a sense of relief in the Detroit Tigers’ clubhouse after their 9-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon.

The victory TJ Brodie Jersey , propelled by a grand slam from Nicholas Castellanos, a career-best four hits by Niko Goodrum and seven strong innings by starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann, ended an 11-game losing streak.

It was the Tigers’ longest losing streak since Aug. 13-23, 2003. They have not lost 12 in a row since 1996.

“It’s good to hear the music playing out there and guys smiling,” Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said.

The Tigers have a chance to escape the Rogers Centre with a split in the four-game series by winning the finale on Monday afternoon.

The Tigers will start right-hander Mike Fiers (5-4, 4.04 ERA) against Blue Jays left-hander Ryan Borucki (0-1, 3.00).

The Tigers had a team meeting before the game.

“It was just a casual talk,” Gardenhire said. “It wasn’t this rah-rah (speech). … I just let them talk and I just said to them, ‘Tell me what we need to do.’ Some guys spoke up and that’s all I wanted to hear. We’re playing hard. We’ve lost 11 in a row up to this point. These guys have been playing, man. They’ve been in every game. We’ve had a chance to win a bunch of these games.”

The Tigers (37-48) were able to put together a five-run fifth inning with a rally that started with two outs against Toronto starter J.A. Happ, who was 6-0 in his previous eight starts. They added two runs in the sixth, also with a rally that began with two out.

The losing streak was the longest by two games in the majors this season and the longest since the Los Angeles Dodgers lost 11 in a row last September.

“We’ve had our chances over the last 10 or 11 games,” Zimmermann said. “It’s just a matter of if we’re going to cash in when we’ve got guys in scoring position. We were able to do that today.”

The Blue Jays (39-44) are expected to trade Happ before the July 31 deadline. When he departed in the sixth inning, the Canada Day crowd gave him an ovation.

“I did notice, and I certainly appreciate that Lars Eller Jersey ,” Happ said. “Maybe it was appreciation for how the season has gone so far or whatever you might take from it, that’s kind of what I took from it. That’s a nice feeling, certainly nicer than potentially getting booed, not that I would expect that at all, either.”

The Tigers face a pitcher who made his major-league debut Tuesday against the Astros in Houston in Borucki. He took the loss after allowing two runs, six hits and four walks in six innings.

Fiers pitched seven strong innings Wednesday against the Oakland Athletics, but took the loss despite allowing only one run on five hits and one walk while striking out five.

Fiers has faced the Blue Jays six times in his career, five as a starter, and is 1-3 with a 4.11 ERA. He made two starts against Toronto last season and was 0-1 with a 5.25 ERA. In two career starts at the Rogers Centre, Fiers is 0-2 with a 5.91 ERA.

The only disappointing news for the Tigers Sunday came from a hamstring injury to center fielder Leonys Martin, who hobbled off the field after a beating out an RBI bunt single in the fifth inning. It was at first announced as a cramp, but Gardenhire said the injury was severe enough to put him on the disabled list. Another player will be brought in for the game Monday.

The day was not a complete loss for the Blue Jays. In the ninth inning, center fielder Kevin Pillar made a spectacular leaping catch to rob Castellanos of what would have been his second homer of the day.

Gardenhire said even Castellanos appreciated Pillar’s catch, although it cost him a homer.

“That was amazing,” Gardenhire said. “That’s a long run Kris Letang Jersey , to climb the wall like that and make that play, the timing, the whole package that just tells you how special an athlete he is.”

The teams are 3-3 in the season series.

TORONTO — The clinching number for the Toronto Raptors is one.

They need to win one of their remaining four games to clinch first place in the Eastern Conference. In the unlikely event of that not happening, one loss by the second-place Boston Celtics, who also have four games left, would also wrap up the East.

Toronto could get the job done by defeating the Indiana Pacers on Friday night at the Air Canada Centre.

The Raptors (56-22) defeated the undermanned Celtics 96-78 on Wednesday night at the ACC to move three games ahead of Boston in the conference.

Meanwhile, the Pacers (47-32) defeated the Golden State Warriors 126-106 at home Thursday night, led by 28 points from Bojan Bogdanovic. They have won six of seven — including two wins over the Warriors without Steph Curry — and are fifth in the Eastern Conference, two games behind the Cleveland Cavaliers and 1 1/2 games behind the Philadelphia 76ers.

“I thought it was a big test tonight,” Indiana coach Nate McMillan said. “I really was looking forward to playing them with their roster tonight, just to see where we were. That’s a really good team. I thought our guys responded well to the challenge.”

Despite being on the verge of clinching home-court advantage in the playoffs, Raptors coach Dwane Casey was trying to keep it in perspective. The victory over Boston followed a loss in Cleveland on Tuesday night.

“We’re not excited, we know we got some other games to go, some other things to get better at; we’re looking at big picture,” Casey said after the game Wednesday. “One game Mark Giordano Jersey , we still have some things to get better at. I liked our defense, I thought our defensive focus was there, our attention to detail, guys were where they were supposed to be, a few hiccups but a big improvement over (Tuesday) night.

“Again, it’s about competition, it’s about competing at a high level. With a big picture in mind, not just trying to win that one game we’re trying to do something special.”

Toronto guard DeMar DeRozan, who scored 16 points Wednesday, said the games leading into the playoffs are important.

“What do we have, four games left? Every single one is extremely important because once next weekend starts you know, it’s literally win or go home,” DeRozan said. “It’s no ‘my bads’ or I get the next one, so these four games are critical and us playing extremely hard and having a rhythm and understanding, our confidence has to be at an all-time high going into next week.”

With the victory over the Celtics Brendan Leipsic Jersey Kids , the Raptors matched their franchise best for overall wins in a season (56) and wins at home (32).

Toronto holds a 2-1 advantage over the Pacers this season, including a 106-99 victory at Indianapolis on March 15 in the most recent meeting.

DeRozan scored 16 of his 24 points in the second half against Indiana in that game.

The Pacers hold a head-to-head tiebreaker over the 76ers (2-1 this year) and Cavaliers (3-1). Both teams have relatively easy schedules remaining, however, so that might not become a factor. The Cavaliers and 76ers do play each other before the season ends.

Indiana has endured a difficult schedule that included visits to Golden State, Sacramento, Los Angeles (against the Clippers) and Denver.

The Pacers will be facing the Raptors on the second half of back-to-back games.

“It’s going to get us bull-tough and battle tested,” Indiana forward Thaddeus Young said. “It’s definitely prepping us for the task at hand, which is going to the playoffs. We’ve been doing a good job of handing it, going out there and staying focused and locked in. This road trip has been tough. … I don’t know who made the schedule, but this is crazy.”

The Pacers have lost eight games in a row at Toronto.