Earlier, Gilberto opened the scoring for Toronto in the 43rd minute, depositing a perfectly placed pass by Moore past goalkeeper Steve Clark. Then in second minute of first-half stoppage time, Columbus was awarded a penalty kick and Federico Higuain made no mistake, burying the shot low in the right corner.
Toronto edged ahead again in the 59th minute when Tony Tchani's original shot was blocked by Clark, but Jonathan Osorio took advantage of the rebound to make it 2-1.
Elsewhere, Sebastien Le Toux scored a brace to lead the Philadelphia Union over Montreal 2-1.
Le Toux intercepted a defender's headed back pass to the goalkeeper in the 12th minute and touched it home to open the scoring. He doubled Philadelphia's advantage in the 63rd minute with a left-footed strike catching goalkeeper Troy Perkins diving the wrong way. Le Toux almost claimed his hat-trick two minutes later but saw his shot sail just over the crossbar.
Maxim Tissot's 79th minute reply was not enough to prevent Montreal falling to its seventh straight defeat.
In other matches, FC Dallas had a 3-1 victory over the Colorado Rapids and the Portland Timbers beat the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0.