TAMPA BAY 11 TORONTO 5
ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - B.J. Upton and Jose Molina homered during a six-run fifth inning and the surging Tampa Bay Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays 11-5 on Saturday night for their fourth consecutive victory.
Evan Longoria and Desmond Jennings also connected for the Rays, who moved within 3 1 /2 games of Oakland for the second AL wild card. Tampa Bay has scored 43 runs during its winning streak.
The Blue Jays have lost five in a row, including the first two of the weekend set against the Rays to make it 17 consecutive losing series at Tampa Bay.
Adam Lind drove in three runs for Toronto, and Brett Lawrie and Rajai Davis had two hits apiece.
Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar was back in the starting lineup two days after he served a threegame suspension for wearing eye-black displaying an anti-gay slur written in Spanish and went 0 for 4.
After Ben Francisco doubled in a run and Ryan Roberts added an RBI single, Molina and Upton each hit a two-run shot off Brad Lincoln as the Rays went up 11-4 in the fifth.
Upton has 25 homers this season, including seven in his last 13 games.
Longoria put the Rays ahead 4-2 with a three-run homer in the second against Brandon Morrow (8-7), who gave up five runs and five hits in four innings.
Jennings tacked on a solo drive in the fourth for his fourth home run in 13 atbats against Morrow.
Lind trimmed Tampa Bay's lead to 5-4 with a tworun triple in the fifth. The ball got past Jennings, who failed to make a sliding catch in left.
Toronto took a 2-0 lead in the first on Edwin Encarnacion's RBI single and a sacrifice fly by Lind off Matt Moore.
Moore, who had lost his four previous starts, was pulled by manager Joe Maddon after allowing two runs and three hits over 2 2 /3 innings. The rookie left-hander departed with two on and has lasted four innings or less in three consecutive starts.
Burke Badenhop (3-2) replaced Moore and retired all four batters he faced.
Tampa Bay got on the board in the first when Francisco walked - the Rays' third free pass of the inning - with the bases loaded and two outs.
Toronto's Adeiny Hechavarria had an eighthinning RBI single.
Escobar, who was out during a three-game series against the New York Yankees, had a pinch-hit single in the eighth inning of the Blue Jays' 12-1 loss to the Rays on Friday night.
"It's time to get back in there," Toronto manager John Farrell said. "Whether he's completely over what has taken place, I would venture to say that he's not. These are the things that he has to deal with."
Escobar apologized and said he meant it to be a joke.
NATIONALS 10 BREWERS 4
WASHINGTON - Gio Gonzalez became the majors' first 20-game winner in 2012, and the first pitcher for a Washington baseball team with 200 strikeouts since Walter Johnson in 1916, taking a shutout into the sixth inning to help the Nationals close in on their first NL East title.
Ryan Zimmerman and Ian Desmond each hit a three-run homer off former Nationals pitcher Livan Hernandez in the fourth inning, and Washington stopped Milwaukee's sixgame winning streak. The Brewers now trail St. Louis by 2 1 /2 games for the second NL wild card.
Owners of baseball's best record, the Nationals already are assured of postseason play, and Gonzalez (20-8, 2.84 ERA) is a big reason.
Milwaukee starter Wily Peralta (2-1) lasted only /3 2 2 giving up three innings, runs and five hits, along with four walks and a wild pitch. -AP
NY YANKEES 10 OAKLAND 9
The New York Yankees outlasted the Oakland Athletics in 14 innings to stay a game ahead of the Baltimore Orioles in their torrid American League East race Saturday.
An infield error that enabled Ichiro Suzuki to score gave the Yankees their seventh consecutive win, a hard-earned 10-9 victory that saw New York rally from a four-run deficit in the 13th.
At New York, the Yankees won it when Oakland first baseman Brandon Moss misplayed an Eduardo Nunez ground ball with the bases loaded.
Raul Ibanez's second home run of the day, a tworun shot, sparked the 13th inning comeback, which also featured a run-scoring wild pitch and a sacrifice fly that scored Alex Rodriguez.
Oakland, which earlier missed two scoring chances with the bases loaded, finally broke loose in the top of the 13th on home runs by Jonny Gomes, Yoenis Cespedes and Chris Carter for a 9-5 lead. But the Yankees replied with four runs in a game that lasted almost six hours. - Reuters
BALTIMORE 9 BOSTON 6
BOSTON - Jim Thome hit a go-ahead double in the 12th in his first game in nearly two months and Baltimore stretched its extra-inning win streak to 16 games.
The Orioles won their sixth straight.
Thome had been on the disabled list since July 31 with a herniated disk in his neck. The veteran slugger gave Baltimore a 7-6 lead with his ground-rule double off Alfredo Aceves (2-10) that drove in Adam Jones, who led off the 12th with a double.
Tommy Hunter (6-8) pitched a perfect 11th and Jim Johnson extended his franchise record to 47 saves. -AP
