Rays 15, Yankees 8
B.J. Upton, Johnny Damon and Ben Zobrist hit two-run homers and had three RBIs apiece as the Tampa Bay Rays snapped a three-game losing streak with a 15-8 romp over the host New York Yankees on Thursday night.
Rookie Matt Moore (1-0) struck out 11 over five scoreless innings in his first career start to help the Rays avert a four-game sweep and pull within two games of AL wild-card leader Boston with six to play.
Tampa Bay pounded Bartolo Colon (8-10) for seven runs over three innings and built a 13-0 lead to win the series finale against New York, which fielded a lineup made up mostly of reserves after clinching the AL East title 24 hours earlier.
Upton lost his bid for the cycle when he popped out in the sixth inning and was removed from the game. He scored four times and finished 8-for-18 in the series.
Damon had two hits to move past Bill Buckner and Rusty Staub for 58th place on the all-time list with 2,717. He is four hits behind Lou Gehrig.
Andruw Jones homered and drove in three runs, and rookie Jesus Montero was 3-for-3 with two RBIs for New York, which did all its scoring from the sixth inning on.