Tampa Bay reduced its magic number to three to clinch the franchise's second playoff berth and moved a half game ahead of New York, which lost to Boston.

Soriano, the fourth Tampa Bay reliever, pitched the ninth to break Roberto Hernandez's franchise save record set in 1999.

Seattle's Jason Vargas (9-12) lost his seventh straight start, which is one off the team record held by Randy Johnson (1992) and Rick Honeycutt (1980).

At New York, Andy Pettitte was ineffective in his second start since being activated from the disabled list as Boston held off New York.

Jed Lowrie hit a three-run homer off Pettitte (11-3) and went 4 for 4, setting a career high for hits. Bill Hall added a three-run shot against Jonathan Albaladejo, handing Red Sox starter Josh Beckett (6-5) a 10-1 cushion in the fifth.

Alex Rodriguez rallied the Yankees with a pair of home runs, giving him 610 to pass Sammy Sosa for sixth place on the career list. Mark Teixeira also connected twice as New York went deep a season-high six times.

At Oakland, California, Tommy Hunter pitched effectively into the sixth inning to earn his career-high 13th victory and Vladimir Guerrero was a triple short of the cycle driving in four runs for Texas.

The Rangers reduced their magic number to two. They can clinch the AL West by beating Oakland in either of the final two games of this four-game series.

Hunter (13-4) scattered six hits over 5 1-3 innings and didn't allow a runner past second base until the sixth when the A's scored their first run.

At Toronto, Jose Bautista hit two home runs to increase his major league-leading total to 52, and Vernon Wells also went deep as the Blue Jays beat Baltimore for the 12th straight time in Toronto.

Left-hander Brett Cecil (14-7) gave up three runs in 6 1-3 innings for the win, improving to 3-0 in four career starts against the Orioles.

All three homers came off Baltimore right-hander Chris Tillman (1-5), who allowed five runs and four hits in six innings.

At Detroit, Justin Verlander struck out 11 batters in a complete game and Jhonny Peralta drove in four runs as Detroit thrashed Minnesota.

Miguel Cabrera had a two-run homer and scored three runs for the Tigers, who have won six of their last seven.

Verlander (18-8) improved to 5-0 in his last seven starts and became the first Tiger to strike out 200 batters in consecutive seasons since Jack Morris in 1987-88.

Francisco Liriano (14-9) allowed two runs in three-plus innings before leaving the game with an illness.

At Cleveland, rookie Josh Tomlin pitched a four-hitter for his first career complete game, helping Cleveland avoid a 100-loss season.

Tomlin (5-4) allowed three runs, struck out a season-high six and walked two as the Indians snapped a five-game losing streak.

Jayson Nix homered twice for Cleveland and Choo Shin-soo had three hits off Luke Hochevar (6-6).

As bad as they've been this season, the Indians (63-91) can't surpass 99 losses even if they don't win any of their final eight games.

At Anaheim, California, Alex Rios hit a tiebreaking RBI single in the ninth inning and Paul Konerko homered to lead Chicago over Los Angeles.

Francisco Rodriguez (1-4) took over in the ninth from starter Joel Pineiro and gave up a one-out walk to Juan Pierre, a single to Omar Vizquel and Rios' line drive to center field.

Matt Thornton (5-4) allowed two hits over two scoreless innings for the victory.