TORONTO >> Walks kill.

There is a reason the Tigers fervently preach attacking the strike zone to their pitchers.

A leadoff walk in the eighth inning led to the Blue Jays’ tying run. And two walks in the previous inning, though neither crossed the plate, allowed the Blue Jays’ lineup to roll over in the ninth.

The result: Ernie Clement ripped a game-winning single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, giving the Blue Jays a 2-1 win.

The Tigers were up 1-0 when lefty reliever Tyler Holton walked Clement after getting ahead of him 1-2. After Clement was bunted to second by Nathan Lukes, right-hander Will Vest was summoned to face lefty pinch-hitter Alejandro Kirk.

Kirk sliced an RBI single down the right-field line to score Clement.

Right-hander Brenan Hanifee pitched the ninth and gave up a one-out double to Daulton Varsho.

There were two damaging walks in the seventh inning, too. Even though the Tigers escaped the inning, reliever Beau Brieske’s two walks allowed the Blue Jays’ lineup to roll over for the ninth.

The loss ruined an exceptional start by right-hander Reese Olson.

Olson gave up a single to Bo Bichette to begin his day Saturday, then proceeded to completely shut down the Blue Jays offense for six innings.

The only other base runner he allowed came in the third inning when catcher Tyler Heineman grinded out a 12-pitch walk. Olson promptly deleted that, inducing a 4-6-3 double play from Bichette.

Olson had precise command of his entire arsenal, with his four-seam fastball and sinker hitting 96 mph regularly. Off the well-placed fastballs, he was getting 13 to 16 inches of arm-side movement with his changeup and between minus-6 and minus-14 inches of vertical break with his slider.

In other words, those two pitches were coming out of the same arm slot and moving sharply in opposite directions.

Olson got five whiffs on nine swings with each pitch.

He finished his six innings with five strikeouts.

The Tigers weren’t doing much offensively, either, against what amounted to a bullpen game for the Blue Jays.

The only run on the board was put there by Spencer Torkelson, who lashed a center-cut changeup off lefty Eric Lauer and sent it 399 feet into the seats in left-center leading off the second inning.

It was Torkelson’s team-leading 12th homer.

Things got dicey for the Tigers in the seventh. Brieske walked two of the three batters he faced. But Holton got out of it in one pitch, inducing a fast 6-4-3 double play from pinch-hitter Myles Straw.