The Tampa Bay Rays returned home and moved back on top of the AL East. Baseball's most surprising team this season entered the All-Star break on a seven-game losing streak, having dropped out of first place in the division, one-half game behind the Boston Red Sox.

A 2-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night ended the losing streak and improved Tampa Bay's home record to 37-14.

"We've been doing it all season here at home," winning pitcher James Shields said. "It's a great one for us."

Ben Zobrist hit a two-run homer and Shields allowed one run over seven innings for the Rays, who lost all but one game in the streak on the road.

Zobrist hit his fourth homer off A.J. Burnett (10-9) to give the Rays a 2-1 lead in the seventh. All four homers by the ninth-place hitter have come in his last 11 games.

"It felt great," Zobrist said. "Burnett was pitching a great game. He was just real hard to hit. I was fortunate to get that fastball over the middle of the plate and put a good swing on it."

In other AL games on Friday, it was: Los Angeles 11, Boston 3; New York 7, Oakland 1; Baltimore 7, Detroit 4; Minnesota 6, Texas 0; Chicago 9, Kansas City 5; and Seattle 8, Cleveland 2.

Shields (8-6) gave up four hits, two walks and had four strikeouts for Tampa Bay, while Grant Balfour got the final four outs for his fourth save.

Tampa Bay has won 33 of 40 at home since April 22. The Rays are 19-25 on the road.

"There's definitely a comfort about it," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "You can't deny that. As long as we maintain this kind of intensity and this kind of play at home I believe before the year is over we'll become a much better road team also."

Burnett went seven innings, giving up two runs and five hits. He won his two previous starts.

"It's the only mistake all tonight," Burnett said of the pitch to Zobrist. "I kept the team in it as long as I could. One pitch determined the outcome of the whole game."

Toronto has lost six of seven against Tampa Bay this season.

Angels 11, Red Sox 3

Garret Anderson went 4-for-4 and drove in five runs as the Angels improved their lead in the AL West over Oakland to a season-best seven games with their major league-leading 58th victory.

John Lackey (7-2) allowed three runs and five hits over seven innings and struck out six.

Kevin Youkilis and Manny Ramirez homered for the visiting Red Sox. Clay Buchholz (2-5) was charged with eight runs and eight hits in 4 2-3 innings in his second start since returning from the minors.

Yankees 7, Athletics 1

Robinson Cano hit a three-run homer and Alex Rodriguez also went deep for New York. Richie Sexson hit an RBI single in his first at-bat with the Yankees after signing with them, and Mike Mussina (12-6) pitched six effective innings to tie Cleveland's Cliff Lee and Los Angeles' Joe Saunders for most wins in the AL.

Greg Smith (5-8), starting in place of traded Joe Blanton, gave up six runs and eight hits in 3 2-3 innings for Oakland, which had won six of its previous seven games at Yankee Stadium.

Orioles 7, Tigers 4

Luke Scott homered twice and Melvin Mora and Aubrey Huff also went deep for Baltimore.

Scott hit a solo shot in the second and a two-run drive in the bottom of the eighth for his second multihomer game this season and fourth of his career. Huff had two hits to help the Orioles win for only the second time in 10 games. Continued...