Tigers 6, Pirates 5: Jhonny Peralta had a season-high four hits and drove in three runs while Justin Verlander recorded a season-high 13 strikeouts as host Detroit won for the sixth time in seven games.

Victor Martinez added a two-run double and Prince Fielder scored three times in support of Verlander (6-4), who was 1-2 with an 11.37 ERA over his last three outings. However, the 2011 American League MVP improved to 4-0 in as many starts against Pittsburgh, allowing three runs and seven hits over seven innings.

Francisco Liriano (3-1) entered Monday with wins in all three of his starts since joining the rotation May 11, but surrendered season highs in runs (four) and hits (eight) over five innings. He held the majors’ highest-scoring offense scoreless through three innings, but Peralta broke through in the fourth with an RBI single.

Detroit struck for three more runs in the fifth on Martinez’s liner off the wall in left-center and Peralta’s broken-bat grounder past first baseman Gaby Sanchez to stake Detroit to a 4-1 lead. The Pirates rallied with back-to-back extra-base RBI hits in the seventh from Travis Snider and Neil Walker to close within 4-3.

The Tigers countered in the bottom half with Peralta’s second run-scoring single and Brayan Pena’s bases-loaded walk. Although the Pirates got the runs back in the eighth off reliever Joaquin Benoit, they couldn’t draw even and Jose Valverde worked around a one-out single in the ninth for his sixth save.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Peralta’s four-hit game was his first since June 4, 2010. … Pittsburgh allowed more than four runs for the first time in 13 games. … Martinez went 2-for-3 against Liriano and is 13-for-27 with six doubles against the left-hander in his career.