St. Petersburg, Florida: David Price won his sixth start in a row and Evan Longoria hit a three-run double as the Tampa Bay Rays earned their eighth straight victory, beating the Boston Red Sox 6-4 in Major League Baseball on Friday.
Price (11-7) struck out 10 over eight innings. He matched the team record shared by Matt Moore and Scott Kazmir for victories in consecutive starts.
Ben Zobrist got his fourth hit, an RBI double that made it 3-all in the Rays’ seventh. Later in the inning, Longoria delivered his go-ahead hit off Junichi Tazawa (1-2).
The Red Sox lost their fourth consecutive game.
In other games, the Los Angeles Dodgers matched a club record with five triples in their 8-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants, the Cincinnati Reds lost to the Washington Nationals 4-1 to remain winless since the All-Star break, and the New York Yankees won for the seventh time in eight games, topping the Toronto Blue Jays 6-4.
The Texas Rangers also topped the American League West-leading Oakland Athletics 4-1 and the Kansas City Royals got their fourth straight win by defeating the Cleveland Indians 6-4.
The Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig tied a team record with three triples and added a double and two RBIs in the win over the Giants.
The Dodgers got three of their five triples during a five-run fifth inning that chased Tim Lincecum (9-7). It was the most triples in a game for the team since 1921 and most by a Dodgers player since Brooklyn’s Jimmy Sheckard had three in 1901.
Los Angeles moved within a half-game of San Francisco for the lead in the National League West division.
The Reds, meanwhile, have dropped seven straight games for their longest losing streak in five years. Alfredo Simon (12-5) has also lost both starts since his first All-Star selection.
Tanner Roark allowed only three singles over seven innings and Denard Span got four hits for the Nationals, who have won seven of nine games.
In New York, Ichiro Suzuki homered for the first time since last August as the Yankees beat the Blue Jays for the 17th straight time at Yankee Stadium.
Suzuki hit a go-ahead, three-run shot in the third inning off Mark Buehrle (10-7), who dropped to 1-12 against the Yankees, including 10 straight losses over the past decade.
The Rangers got six solid innings from Jerome Williams, who was the 31st pitcher used by the team this season — a team record.
Williams (2-4) allowed one run while striking out four without a walk.
In Kansas City, Billy Butler’s two-run homer with two outs in the eighth inning sent the Royals past the Indians. Kelvin Herrera (2-2) pitched a scoreless eighth for the win.
Elsewhere in the league, Jose Abreu hit his MLB-leading 30th homer and drove in three runs, leading the Chicago White Sox past Minnesota 9-5.
Abreu, a Cuban rookie, now has 77 RBIs on the season. Alexei Ramirez and Tyler Flowers also homered for the White Sox, while Dayan Viciedo tied a career high with four of Chicago’s 17 hits.
Baltimore overcame a record-tying start by Felix Hernandez in a 2-1 victory over Seattle.
Hernandez struck out 10 in seven innings and left with the score tied 1-all. It was his 13th consecutive start with at least seven innings and no more than two runs allowed, matching Tom Seaver’s MLB mark set for the New York Mets in 1971.
Milwaukee’s four-game winning streak was stopped with a 3-2 loss to the New York Mets. Lucas Duda hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning for the Mets.
Miami’s Brad Hand pitched three-hit ball into the eighth inning and Jeff Mathis hit a two-run double to lead the Marlins past Houston 2-0.
Chicago’s Luis Valbuena hit a decisive two-run homer in the seventh inning as the Cubs rallied to hand St. Louis its fourth straight loss, 7-6.
San Diego got 12 singles on 13 hits to top Atlanta 3-2” Philadelphia’s Grady Sizemore got the 1,000th hit of his career in the Phillies’ 9-5 win over Arizona, and Colorado’s Brett Anderson got his first win in more than a year, beating Pittsbugh 8-1.
