ARLINGTON, Texas — Yoenis Cespedes hit a three-run homer in the first inning, and Oakland survived a shaky night from the bullpen to extend its AL West lead with a victory over Texas. The A's handed the Rangers their fourth straight loss 9-8 and moved 4.5 games ahead of Texas in the opener of the final series of the regular season between the past two AL West champions. Elvis Andrus and Alex Rios had two-run singles in a six-run eighth as the Rangers tried to rally from a 9-2 deficit. Cespedes, playing left field, ended the threat by throwing out Rios at third on Adrian Beltre's third hit. Cespedes' 23rd homer came off Derek Holland (9-9), who is winless in a career-high seven straight starts. Dan Straily (10-7) allowed two hits in 5 2-3 innings to win his fourth straight start and beat Texas for the second time in 11 days. Rays 3, Twins 0: Chris Archer pitched six scoreless innings and Tampa Bay added to its slim wild-card lead by beating Minnesota. The Rays hold the second wild-card spot with four teams still in striking range. They nudged their edge to 1.5 games over Cleveland, and a loss by New York pushed the Yankees to two games back. Baltimore (2.5 games behind) and Kansas City (3.5) are lurking, too. Orioles 5, Blue Jays 3: Chris Davis hit his major league-leading 50th home run, a tiebreaking solo shot in the eighth inning, and Baltimore erased a 3-0 deficit to beat Toronto and snap a three-game losing streak. Davis became the 27th major leaguer to join the 50-homer club, and the first since Jose Bautista in 2010. Davis led off the eighth with a blast to center off All-Star reliever Steve Delabar, connecting on a 2-2 pitch. The drive matched Brady Anderson's 1996 Orioles record and made Davis just the third player in major league history with 50 homers and 40 doubles in the same season. The others were Babe Ruth (1921) and Albert Belle (1995). Tigers 6, Royals 3: Prince Fielder homered and drove in three runs, and Justin Verlander pitched effectively into the seventh inning to lift Detroit to victory over Kansas City. Detroit remained six games ahead of second-place Cleveland in the AL Central and dealt the third-place Royals a setback in the postseason race. Kansas City is one of several teams hoping at least to catch Tampa Bay for a wild card. Astros 9, Angels 7: Jose Altuve hit a three-run homer and Matt Dominguez's grand slam powered a big fifth inning to give Houston a victory over Los Angeles for its fourth straight win. The Astros trailed by 1 entering the fifth before Trevor Crowe singled in two runs to put Houston up 5-4. Dominguez then hit his 20th homer off the wall in left field to extend the lead to 9-4. Dallas Keuchel (6-9) yielded 10 hits and six runs, but tied his career high by striking out nine in 5 2-3 innings for his first win since July 27. Josh Fields struck out two in a scoreless ninth for his fifth save. Indians 3, White Sox 1: Danny Salazar struck out nine in 3 2-3 innings, Ryan Raburn hit an RBI double and Cleveland beat Chicago for the 10th time in a row this season. Salazar's pitch count was limited to 85, and after allowing Dayan Viciedo's single with two outs on his 78th pitch, he was replaced by Nick Hagadone with runners on first and third. Bryan Shaw (4-3) threw two scoreless innings for the win. Red Sox 8, Yankees 4: Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a tiebreaking grand slam in the seventh inning, Koji Uehara closed with another perfect inning and the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees. David Ortiz and Stephen Drew each doubled twice as the AL East-leading Red Sox won for the 15th time in 19 games. Saltalamacchia also doubled and scored twice. — Agencies
