Yankees again alone atop East

BALTIMORE — Alex Rodriguez hit his 300th home run with the Yankees, Russell Martin and Steve Pearce also homered, and New York regained sole possession of first place in the AL East by defeating the Baltimore Orioles 8-5 on Friday night.

The Yankees built a 7-0 lead in the fifth inning against rookie Wei-Yin Chen (12-9) and held on for their third win in nine games. New York had lost eight of 11 to the Orioles, including the opener of this four-game series that runs through Sunday.

Adam Jones, Robert Andino and Manny Machado homered for the Orioles, who got three hits from Nate McLouth but missed a chance to move ahead of the Yankees for the first time since June 7.

MINNEAPOLIS — Russ Canzler hit his first major league homer and reliever David Huff won his first game this season and the Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins 7-6 on Friday night.

Minnesota built an early 4-0 lead on Indians starter Jeanmar Gomez before Canzler and Huff (1-0) — who both spent most of the year in Triple-A Columbus before being called up this month — lifted Cleveland to its fourth win in six games.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Ben Zobrist's home run in the bottom of the 11th inning lifted the Tampa Bay Rays to a 3-1 victory over the Texas Rangers on Friday night.

Zobrist's 16th homer came off Mark Lowe (0-1) after a leadoff walk to B.J. Upton.

BOSTON — Edwin Encarnacion hit one of Toronto's three homers, Henderson Alvarez broke his six-game winless streak and the Toronto Blue Jays prolonged the misery of the Boston Red Sox with a 7-5 win on Friday night.

The Red Sox were hoping for a boost from their return home after going 1-8 on a West Coast trip that left them just one game ahead of the last-place Blue Jays in the AL East. Now Boston is clinging to fourth place by the very slim margin of .4532 to .4525.

CHICAGO — Lorenzo Cain hit two home runs, including a tie-breaking, two-run shot in the ninth inning, as the Kansas City Royals beats the Chicago White Sox 7-5 on Friday night.