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DETROIT -- Chris Taylor banged out four hits, drove in two runs and scored once on Friday to lead the steamrolling Los Angeles Dodgers to an 8-5 victory over the Detroit Tigers, their fifth straight win and 20th in their last 23. Rich Hill (9-4) wasn't dominating for the Dodgers but with seven runs while he was in the game, he didn't have to be. Hill gave up six hits and three runs in his five innings, walking three and striking out five, leaving with a 7-3 lead.
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The Tigers' Victor Martinez greeted reliever Josh Fields with his 10th home run, a drive to right, making it 7-4 one batter into the sixth.
After Fields worked his inning, Pedro Baez pitched two scoreless innings and Kenley Jansen pitched the ninth. Jansen gave up Justin Upton's second home run of the game and 25th of the season plus two more singles before striking out Martinez and James McCann to end the game.
Corey Seager hit a sacrifice fly to center, driving in Logan Forsythe to give the Dodgers a 7-3 lead in the sixth. Forsythe had doubled and stopped at third on a single to left by Taylor that ended Jordan Zimmermann's night. Enter reliever Daniel Stumpf, who gave up the sacrifice fly.
Zimmermann (7-10) pitched 5 1/3 innings and was touched for 10 hits and seven runs. He walked two and struck out five.
Upton trimmed the Los Angeles lead to 4-3 with his 24th home run in the third. Upton got just past second base but put a finger up and retreated to retouch second and then first base just in case he had missed the first bag.
Los Angeles restored its three-run margin to 6-3 in the fourth when Forsythe walked and Joc Pederson and Taylor followed with RBI doubles.
The Tigers took an early lead when Hill gave up a pair of runs in the first on a walk to Ian Kinsler plus doubles by Upton and Miguel Cabrera.
Yasmani Grandal opened the second with a walk off Zimmermann and stopped at third on Gonzalez's sharp double off the right-field wall. Forsythe singled past third to drive in Grandal. Taylor doubled to right tie the score at 2-all.
Seager gave Los Angeles a 4-2 lead with a two-run single to right.
Los Angeles owns the best record in baseball at 86-34 and has won 51 of its last 60 games.
NOTES: RHP Anibal Sanchez (left hamstring) was placed on the 10-day disabled list Friday by Detroit, which called up CF JaCoby Jones from Triple-A Toledo to replace him. ... 1B Adrian Gonzalez was activated from the 60-day disabled list by the Los Angeles Dodgers, who optioned utility player Rob Segedin to Triple-A Oklahoma City. ... Tigers 2B Ian Kinsler was fined an undisclosed amount by Major League Baseball for his derogatory remarks about umpire Angel Hernandez earlier in the week. ... Dodgers' RHP Yu Darvish (sore back) will get an extra day of rest before making his next start, manager Dave Roberts said.
