DETROIT -- The Detroit Tigers know things are going their way when Victor Martinez can lay down a bunt and beat it out for a single.

Martinez has been seeing over-shifted infielders long before defensive shifts became commonplace.

So Monday night in the fifth inning, he led off against an over-shifted defense Cleveland Indians defense -- the shortstop near second base but the other three infielders to the right side against the left-handed batter -- Martinez squared and bunted the first pitch from Trevor Bauer precisely where the third baseman would have normally been standing.

It was a no-contest single and Martinez trundled down to first. He went to third on a double by Justin Upton and both runners scored on Alex Avila's single as Detroit went on to a 7-1 victory over the Cleveland Indians.

"It was a lot of fun. I finally put one down," Martinez said. "The first time in my career. My heart was going boom, boom, boom. I wasn't really that confident when I came up to bat."

"There was a lot of (dugout) cheering going on," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. "We talked about it in spring training.

"We talked to Alex (Avila), not so much Victor, quite frankly, guys that are potential shift hitters. It's something that's a good weapon to have, especially leading off an inning."

Daniel Norris allowed one run in his six innings and Tyler Collins hit a three-run home run to power Detroit through.

Norris (2-2), whose only other win this season was also against Cleveland, gave up five hits with four walks and eight strikeouts. He pitched six scoreless two-hit innings in his other win.

"Right out of the gate, he had a really good slider," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "A really good slider. And he's got plenty of velocity to go with it. He'll scatter some balls, but he had really good stuff."

Alex Wilson worked a scoreless seventh and Anibal Sanchez finished with two scoreless innings to make it seven in a row without a run for the Tigers' bullpen, which entered the week worst in the league in ERA.

Avila lined reliever Zach McAllister's first pitch into left-center field for a two-run single in the fifth, pushing Detroit to a 7-1 lead.

Bauer (2-3) allowed seven runs, seven hits and five walks with three strikeouts in his four-plus innings.

"He had a lot of deep counts," Francona said. "Sometimes he gets himself in a situation where a lot of hitters are deep counts and he has to make a pitch and after they've seen four, five, six pitches, you've gotta make almost a perfect pitch.

"Every once in a while he does, but when he doesn't, they squared up a lot of balls. You look up in the fourth inning and his strike-to-ball (ratio) is almost relatively even. We get him to work ahead a little bit more, his success would be a lot better.

"Fortunately, he stayed out there long enough where we didn't go through our whole bullpen. That was the concern early."

Edwin Encarnacion trimmed the Tigers' lead to 5-1 in the third with an RBI single to left after Francisco Lindor singled to center and Michael Brantley walked.

Collins slammed his three-run homer off Bauer in the second to boost Detroit's lead to 5-0. Jose Iglesias walked with one out and Ian Kinsler singled to right before Collins hit his second home run of the season, a drive to deep right center over the tall scoreboard wall.

Collins walked with one out in the first and scored from first on a double to right center by Nick Castellanos, who scored in turn on a next-pitch double by Martinez to give the Tigers a 2-0 start.

NOTES: Detroit called up LHP Chad Bell on Sunday and optioned RHP Joe Jimenez to Triple-A Toledo, where he can sharpen his slider. Bell will work long relief. ... Cleveland finished above .500 (14-10) after April for the first time since 2012. ... The Tigers anticipate activating 1B Miguel Cabrera when he is eligible to come off the disabled list Tuesday. ... 2B Jason Kipnis is hitting just .191 in nine games since coming off the disabled list, but manager Terry Francona feels "he's like one good swing away" from getting back on track.