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Jackson strong as Rays hold off Royals

Jul 26, 2008 - 5:29 AM By Pat Madden PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- The Tampa Bay Rays snapped a seven-game road losing streak and regained sole possession of first place in the American League East Division with a 5-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday.

The Rays improved to 60-42 with the win. Coupled with Boston's 1-0 loss to the New York Yankees, Tampa Bay move a game ahead of the Red Sox (60-44) in the division.

Carlos Pena, Akinori Iwamura and Dioner Navarro each recorded two hits for Tampa Bay, which registered its first road victory since June 29 at Pittsburgh.

"Yes, it's so nice to get a road victory," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "Sleeping in a hotel is kind of difficult anyway. After a victory, it's much easier to sleep in a foreign bed. If we want to get to the promised land, we gotta win on the road. We can't let games get away. We've got to do a better job, and I would say the pitching got that done for us tonight."

Ross Gload collected two hits - including his second home run of the season - for Kansas City (46-58), which dropped into last place in the AL Central.

Righthander Edwin Jackson (6-7) won his second straight start this month against the Royals, surrendering two runs and two hits in five-plus innings. He struck out two and walked two.

"What I had wasn't exceptional," Jackson said. "I was just trying to be aggressive. There were good defensive plays made behind me. I was just trying to keep the pace up."

"He was good," Maddon said. "He did it primarily with the fastball. He didn't throw that many sliders or changeups, he did it primarily with the fastball."

Three relievers bridged the gap to closer Troy Percival, who yielded a run in the ninth but notched his 21st save of the season.

"The bullpen was fabulous," Maddon said.

Brian Bannister (7-9) took the loss, allowing three runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. The righthander struck out one, hit two batters and walked one in losing for the third time in five starts.

"In general, tonight I kept the ball down," Bannister said. "The pitches had more energy, more life. It's a process of rebuilding my confidence. I was able to do that, and our lineup was great tonight."

"I was happy with Banny," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "He pitched with some of the same stuff we've seen before. (Pitching out of a windup) gave him more of a downward angle. We definitely saw that it was flattening out of the stretch. Hopefully, we found something. That was the old Bannister today, at least his stuff."

Jackson held the Royals hitless for 4 2/3 innings before surrendering Billy Butler's fifth home run of the season to center field - a 427-foot shot.

Evan Longoria's two-out single to right field in the first inning staked the Rays to a 1-0 lead. Tampa Bay added another run in the fifth with the help of two errors.

B.J. Upton doubled to open the inning, moved to third on a throwing error by second baseman Mark Grudzielanek and scored on shortstop Mike Aviles' fielding miscue.

John Buck's seventh home run of the season, a leadoff shot in the sixth, sliced Kansas City's deficit to 3-2.

"We didn't have too many good at-bats, other than the balls out of the ballpark," Hillman said. "We made too many mistakes, which you can't do against a quality ballclub."

Pena hit his 16th home run of the season, a two-run shot to right-center field in the ninth inning, to provide the final margin.

"The last time we went on a road trip, things were rough," Pena said. "So it's good to get that out of the way, for sure. Wins on the road are going to be incredibly huge down the stretch."