Garza helps Rays stay on pace with Yankees

Matt Garza (14-7) pitched into the sixth inning to earn his 14th win, Carl Crawford had three hits and an RBI, and the Tampa Bay Rays cruised to a 4-1 victory over the Orioles in Baltimore on Friday night.

The Rays stayed 11/2 games behind the first-place Yankees in the AL East and extended their wild-card lead over idle Boston to seven games. Tampa Bay has won five of six and nine of 12.

Twins 4, Rangers 3

Denard Span delivered the go-ahead run with a single in the seventh inning and emergency starter Matt Fox pitched 52/3 innings in his major-league debut for host Minnesota.

Phillies 1, Brewers 0

Cole Hamels (9-10) dominated for seven innings for host Philadelphia. He ran his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 18 while allowing three hits and striking out seven.

Marlins 6, Braves 1

Logan Morrison hit two stand-up RBI triples and host Florida's Andrew Miller worked five innings for his first win in more than a year. Atlanta's loss, combined with Philadelphia's 1-0 win over Milwaukee, cut the Braves' NL East lead over the Phillies to one game.

Cardinals 3, Reds 2

Rookie Jaime Garcia beat Cincinnati for the fourth time and stopped host St. Louis' five-game losing streak. Jon Jay, Albert Pujols and Skip Schumaker had RBIs for the Cards. Paul Janish homered with one out in the third to end Garcia's run of 222/3 innings without allowing an earned run. Garcia is 13-6.

Morgan suspended eight games

Nyjer Morgan's wild week earned him an eight-game suspension, one of nine punishments handed out by Major League Baseball following a brawl Wednesday between the Nationals and the Marlins. MLB also fined Washington outfielder Morgan an undisclosed amount for three separate incidents over the past week. All that is in addition to a seven-game suspension he received Aug. 25 that is currently under appeal.

- AP