NEW YORK — Ichiro Suzuki homered for the first time since last August, prolonging extended slumps against the New York Yankees for Mark Buehrle and the Toronto Blue Jays.

Suzuki hit a go-ahead, three-run shot in the third inning, and the Yankees overcame an early deficit to beat the Blue Jays 6-4 Friday night for their 17th straight home win against Toronto.

Jose Bautista hit two homers to reach 20 for the fifth straight season. He also doubled and drove in four runs, but Buehrle couldn’t hold leads of 3-0 and 4-2. The All-Star left-hander dropped to 1-12 against the Yankees, including 10 straight losses over the past decade.

New York won for the seventh time in eight games since the All-Star break and moved one game in front of the third-place Blue Jays in the AL East.

Buehrle (10-7) started the season 10-1 but dropped to 0-6 with a 4.83 ERA in nine starts since beating Kansas City on June 1. He gave up six runs and nine hits in three innings, his shortest outing since June 6, 2010, for the Chicago White Sox against Cleveland.

RANGERS 4, ATHLETICS 1: Jerome Williams pitched six solid innings while becoming the team-record 31st pitcher used this season by host Texas, which beat AL West-leading Oakland.

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Elvis Andrus had a triple among his two hits and scored twice for the Rangers, who had lost their seven previous home games in July and were coming off a 2-5 road trip out of the All-Star break.

WHITE SOX 9, TWINS 5: Jose Abreu hit his major league-leading 30th homer and drove in three runs, leading Chicago past host Minnesota.

Abreu had two hits and scored twice.

Alexei Ramirez and Tyler Flowers also homered for the White Sox. Dayan Viciedo tied a career high with four of Chicago’s 17 hits.

John Danks (9-6), the subject of recent trade rumors, gave up four runs over seven innings.

ROYALS 6, INDIANS 4: Pinch-hitter Billy Butler’s two-run homer with two outs in the eighth inning sent host Kansas City to its fourth straight win.

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NATIONAL LEAGUE

CUBS 7, CARDINALS 6: Luis Valbuena hit a decisive two-run homer in the seventh inning, and host Chicago overcame a three-run deficit.

NATIONALS 4, REDS 1: Denard Span matched Cincinnati’s hit total with his four singles, and Tanner Roark allowed only three singles over seven innings.

PHILLIES 9, DIAMONDBACKS 5: Domonic Brown homered, doubled and drove in three runs to lead Philadelphia to victory at home over Arizona.

PADRES 5, BRAVES 2: Rookie Jesse Hahn allowed only three hits in six innings to remain unbeaten on the road and San Diego won at Atlanta.

METS 3, BREWERS 2: Lucas Duda hit a two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning to lead New York at Milwaukee.

INTERLEAGUE

MARLINS 2, ASTROS 0: In spite of having just two runs to show for 11 hits, Miami won at Houston.


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