AMERICAN LEAGUE

Rays 4, Orioles 1

Matt Garza pitched into the sixth inning to earn his 14th win, Carl Crawford had three hits and an RBI, and Tampa Bay cruised to a victory Baltimore Friday night.

The Rays stayed 1 1-2 games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the AL East and extended their wild-card lead over Boston to seven games. Tampa Bay has won five of six and nine of 12.

Garza (14-7) gave up one run and five hits in 5 2-3 innings. It was an extension of an outstanding August in which he had a 1.27 ERA over five starts.

In his last outing against the Orioles, Garza yielded four homers and seven runs in 6 1-3 innings. The right-hander's performance in the rematch provided a measure of redemption and improved his lifetime record against Baltimore to 9-1, including 3-0 this season.

Rafael Soriano worked the ninth for his major-league leading 41st save.

Felix Pie drove in the lone run for the Orioles, mired in their first three-game losing streak under manager Buck Showalter. Baltimore is 17-13 since Showalter made his debut on Aug. 3.

Kevin Millwood (3-15) allowed four runs and seven hits in 5 2-3 innings. He was vying for a second straight win after going nine straight starts without one.

Millwood allowed at least one first-inning run in 13 of his previous 17 starts, and it appeared the trend would continue when Crawford hit a two-out triple and Evan Longoria walked. But Carlos Pena popped out to end the threat.

In the third, however, Crawford hit an RBI single and scored on Longoria's AL-high 43rd double.

Reid Brignac singled in a run and Ben Zobrist hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0 in the fourth. Baltimore got a run back in the bottom half when Ty Wigginton doubled, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on a fly ball to center by Pie.

Garza was lifted in the sixth after issuing two walks. Chad Qualls came in and got Matt Wieters to ground out.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Cubs 7, Mets 6

Alfonso Soriano and Blake DeWitt each hit three-run homers, and Chicago beat New York.

It was a wild start to a weekend series between two disappointing teams, but the Cubs ultimately hung on after taking two of three from Pittsburgh.

David Wright delivered a two-run double and scored in the first as the Mets grabbed a 3-0 lead against Randy Wells. Then, with the Cubs ahead 7-4, Wright homered off Andrew Cashner leading off the seventh, giving him three hits.

Things really got interesting when Luis Hernandez started the eighth against Sean Marshall with his second career homer and first since Sept. 27, 2007. That made it 7-6, but the Mets came up short for the fourth time in five games.

Former Mets outfielder Xavier Nady had three hits. Starlin Castro had a pair of singles for his fifth straight multihit game, but the biggest blows came from Soriano and DeWitt.

Soriano capped a four-run fourth off knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (9-6) with his 22nd homer, briefly putting the Cubs ahead 4-3. The Mets tied it in the sixth when Angel Pagan singled with two out and came around on a double to the right-field corner by Lucas Duda, the first hit and RBI of his career.

It was a rough afternoon for Dickey, who saw his ERA rise from 2.57 to 2.91. The seven runs allowed were the most for him since Aug. 20, 2008, when he allowed eight for Seattle in a loss to the Chicago White Sox.

Phillies 1, Brewers 0

Cole Hamels dominated over seven innings and Philadelphia capitalized on a Milwaukee miscue to score the only run it would need.

Hamels (9-10) continued to receive little run support, but didn't need much as he breezed to his second straight win and ran his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 18. He allowed three hits and struck out seven.

Hamels was coming off another sparkling effort on Aug. 29 in his hometown of San Diego, when he allowed four hits in eight scoreless innings. Before that, the left-hander had gone 0-3 with five no-decisions in his previous eight outings.

Marlins 6, Braves 1

Logan Morrison hit two stand-up RBI triples, Andrew Miller worked five innings for his first win in more than a year, and Florida beat Atlanta.

Atlanta's loss, combined with Philadelphia's 1-0 win over Milwaukee, cut the Braves' NL East lead over the Phillies to one game.

Morrison became the eighth player to hit multiple triples in a game this season, according to STATS LLC, after hitting only one in his first 126 at-bats.