TORONTO – Ryan Roberts singled home the tiebreaking run in the eighth inning and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays 8-5 on Friday night.
Evan Longoria, Wil Myers, Kelly Johnson and Ben Zobrist all went deep off Toronto starter Esmil Rogers, lifting the Rays to their 15th win in 17 games.
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Zobrist and Myers both had three hits, each coming within a triple of the cycle.
Jose Bautista hit a two-run homer for the Blue Jays, who got solo shots from Edwin Encarnacion, Brett Lawrie and J.P. Arencibia, but couldn’t protect a 4-1 lead, losing for the ninth time in 12 games.
ROYALS 1, TIGERS 0: Ervin Santana (6-6) allowed two singles in 71/3 innings as host Kansas City snapped a five-game losing streak.
Santana did not allow a runner to reach second base. He walked one and struck out six.
TWINS 3, INDIANS 2: Joe Mauer’s two-out RBI single in the eighth inning lifted host Minnesota to a win after an error by Cleveland first baseman Nick Swisher set up the winning run.
ORIOLES 3, RANGERS 1: Matt Wieters homered and Nick Markakis added an RBI double in a win at Arlington, Texas.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
DODGERS 3, NATIONALS 2: Andre Ethier homered off Rafael Soriano to lead off the ninth inning in a win at Washington.
Ethier pulled a 1-2 slider just over the wall in right-center, his sixth homer of the year.
Hanley Ramirez also had a home run, a two-run shot, for the Dodgers.
REDS 5, PIRATES 3: Brandon Phillips drove in three runs with a bases-loaded double at Cincinnati, and Mike Leake (9-4) got the better of left-hander Francisco Liriano for the third time this season.
The third-place Reds moved to within three games of second-place Pittsburgh in the NL Central.
PHILLIES 13, METS 8: Chase Utley, Domonic Brown and visiting Philadelphia came flying out of the All-Star break, scoring 11 runs in the first three innings.
Michael Young hit a three-run homer, Utley had a two-run drive and Brown a solo shot as the Phillies (49-48) won for the ninth time in 12 games to move over .500 for only the second time this season.
BREWERS 2, MARLINS 0: Juan Francisco and Carlos Gomez each hit home runs and Kyle Lohse (6-7) blanked Miami for six innings at Milwaukee.
Lohse struck out five and allowed five hits but no walks in earning his fourth win in the last five decisions.
CARDINALS 9, PADRES 6: Jake Westbrook (6-4) pitched 61/3 innings of two-run ball and contributed three hits and All-Star Matt Carpenter continued his strong season with three hits and three RBI in a win at St. Louis.
MARINERS 10, ASTROS 7: Houston rookie outfielder Brandon Barnes went 5-for-5 and hit for the cycle, but the Astros still lost at home.
The center fielder is the first right-handed hitter to hit for the cycle since Craig Biggio did it on April 8, 2002, at Colorado.
INTERLEAGUE
BRAVES 6, WHITE SOX 4: Brian McCann hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning to break open a tie game as Atlanta won at Chicago. Braves starter Tim Hudson (7-7) earned his third straight win.
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