Blue Jays second baseman Aaron Hill celebrates with Adam Lind at home plate after Lind belted a three-run home run. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

By the time the Blue Jays and Cleveland Indians had stopped hitting the ball all over the Rogers Centre field and exposing each other's bullpen, Brett Cecil's sterling major league debut was nearly an afterthought.

After his tidy six-inning effort, the Jays left-hander watched Adam Lind twice give Toronto the lead, the second time courtesy of a three-run home run to the second deck in right field in the seventh inning of a 10-6 win on Tuesday afternoon.

The designated hitter guessed right on a 1-2 slider from Indians relief pitcher Tony Sipp.

"I figured he was going to throw it because I faced him [Monday] night and he threw all fastballs, and then he made me look kind of stupid with his first pitch slider" on Tuesday, the 25-year-old Lind said of the tiebreaking three-run blast, his sixth dinger of the season. "After he came up in, I figured he was going to try and go down and away with the slider."

Lind added a pair of singles, drove in five runs and scored twice to help the American League East-leading Blue Jays gain a split in the two-game series.

Cecil allowed two runs (one earned), struck out six and didn't walk a batter after going 0-3 with a 8.31 earned-run average in four starts at triple-A Las Vegas this season.

More impressive, Cecil showed no fear pitching inside, hitting three batters leaning too far over the plate.

"It didn't bother him. I liked that," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said of Cecil, whose promotion was necessitated by injury. "They probably weren't picking up his slider very well. That's the sign of a good pitch."

Cecil poised in big-league debut

The 22-year-old struck out Grady Sizemore, the first batter he faced before a crowd of 22,005, and worked his way out of a two-on, one-out jam by inducing Mark DeRosa to fly out and fanning Shin-Soo Choo.

Cecil got into some trouble in the second inning after hitting Matt LaPorta with a pitch.

After Ben Francisco singled to score LaPorta, advanced to second base on an error by left-fielder Travis Snider and stole third, Cecil hit Kelly Shoppach with a pitch. The next batter, Sizemore, grounded into a force out, scoring Francisco to make it 2-1 Indians.

"If I hit a few guys, that's not going to change the plan," Cecil said. "I made a couple guys mad today, but that's part of the game.

"It's definitely a good thing to establish the inside part of the plate, and you've got to keep them uncomfortable in there. If they're comfortable, they're going to tear you apart."

Cecil blanked Cleveland over the next four innings, at one point setting down six of seven batters and striking out three.

In the bottom of the sixth, Toronto (19-10) regained the lead when Lind drove a 1-1 fastball from Indians starter Anthony Reyes up the middle that scored Snider and Marco Scutaro.

The teams, back at it about 13 hours after a 9-7 Cleveland win Monday night, chewed through a combined seven relievers and 82 pitches during a wild seventh inning.

Carlson allows 3 runs

The Indians tacked on four runs, three of which were charged to relief pitcher Jesse Carlson, who gave up three hits, walked a batter and threw a wild pitch.

Jhonny Peralta delivered the big hit of the inning, a soft fly ball that fell in front of centre-fielder Vernon Wells for a two-run single off eventual winning pitcher Brian Wolfe (1-0), the third Blue Jays pitcher of the inning.

Peralta finished 3-for-5 at the plate for Cleveland, which occupies last place in the AL Central Division with a 10-17 mark. First baseman Victor Martinez also had three hits to extend his hitting streak to 14 games.

Trailing 6-3, Toronto touched Indians relievers for seven runs in the bottom of the seventh, highlighted by back-to-back homers from Lind and Rolen off Sipp.

Vinnie Chulk took the loss for the Indians, who are 1-15 this season when trailing after eight innings. The former Blue Jay didn't record an out, yielding two earned runs on one hit and walking a batter.

Toronto relievers have thrown 26 1/3 innings over their past seven games, and with interim closer Scott Downs needing a day off Monday because of his workload, the Blue Jays blew a pair of leads, one with two outs in the ninth in that loss.

"We've had one day off and that was in April," Gaston said. "It's getting where we need a day off so some guys can get some rest."

Toronto begins a five-game road trip to Anaheim and then Oakland on Wednesday, with ace Roy Halladay opposing Anthony Ortega of the Los Angeles Angels at 7:05 p.m. PT.

With files from The Canadian Press