NEW YORK — David Price earned his league-leading 18th win with another superb performance against the New York Yankees, and the Tampa Bay Rays opened a key series against their AL East rival Friday by taking advantage of a fading CC Sabathia and hanging on for a 6-4 victory. The Rays began the day four games behind division co-leaders Baltimore and New York. Out of the rotation since Sept. 2 because of a sore shoulder, Price (18-5) boosted his AL Cy Young Award credentials with seven innings of two-run ball. Striking out six and giving up five hits, the lanky lefty got a big lift from an inadvertent deflection off an umpire and a fine play by second baseman Elliot Johnson. Price improved to 7-3 against the Yankees. The Rays have won seven of the eight games he has matched up against Sabathia. With Price out of the game, Alex Rodriguez hit his 647th homer, a two-run shot off Joel Peralta in the eighth that sent him past Lou Gehrig for ninth place on the runs list with 1,889. Derek Jeter, serving as the designated hitter for a second straight day because of an injured ankle, singled leading off the inning to wake up the fans silenced by Tampa Bay's rally against Sabathia (13-6). Jeter had an infield single in the fifth to pass Willie Mays for 10th on the hits list with 3,284. After a walk to Robinson Cano, closer Fernando Rodney entered. The top reliever by ERA in the majors (0.68) struck out Russell Martin, threw a wild pitch and walked pinch hitter Raul Ibanez. Curtis Granderson meekly grounded to end the threat. Rodney finished with a perfect ninth for his 43rd save in 45 chances. Athletics 3, Orioles 2: Yoenis Cespedes hit a two-run homer while playing with a sore right wrist, and the AL wild card-leading Athletics beat Baltimore to prevent the Orioles from moving into sole possession of first place in the AL East. White Sox 6, Twins 0: Chris Sale threw six scoreless innings for his 17th victory after being rained out the night before, helping Chicago keep its one-game lead over Detroit in the AL Central. Tigers 4, Indians 0: Justin Verlander pitched seven shutout innings and made sure Detroit stayed in step with first-place Chicago in the AL Central, leading the Tigers past Cleveland. Rangers 9, Mariners 3: Yu Darvish surpassed 200 strikeouts in his rookie season while getting his 15th victory and Josh Hamilton hit his 42nd home run for AL West-leading Texas. Darvish (15-9) struck out nine in seven innings, often complementing his mid-90s fastball with a breaking pitch about 30mph slower. Ian Kinsler hit his sixth leadoff homer this year for Texas, a ball initially ruled a double before umpires looked at the replay and correctly reversed that call. There was no question about Hamilton's long drive in the third off Hisashi Iwakuma (6-5), like Darvish a former Pacific League MVP in Japan and now a rookie in the major leagues. Red Sox 8, Blue Jays 5: Mauro Gomez hit a tiebreaking triple in the ninth inning and Boston beat Toronto, snapping a six-game losing streak against the Blue Jays. Angels 9, Royals 7: Pinch hitter Kendrys Morales had two-run homer during an eighth-inning rally that sent Los Angeles past Kansas City. Several hours before the game, a man shot and wounded a female parking lot employee between the stadiums that are home to the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals before killing himself, police said. — Agencies
