AL roundup: Rays lose, tied for AL East lead

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Zack Greinke did not put up the numbers he did last season, but he pitched well enough Thursday night to defeat the Tampa Bay Rays for the first time in his career.

Greinke pitched seven sharp innings and the Kansas City Royals beat Tampa Bay 3-2, leaving the Rays and New York Yankees tied for the AL East lead.

The Rays and idle Yankees, who have both clinched playoff spots, are even at 94-65 going into the final weekend. Tampa Bay plays three more times at Kansas City while the Yankees have a three-game series at Boston.

If Tampa Bay and New York are tied after Sunday, the Rays win the division title because they won the season series against the Yankees.

Greinke (10-4) gave up two runs and four hits while striking out nine. The 2009 AL Cy Young Award winner with a 16-8 record, Greinke had won only one of his previous seven starts. He'd been tagged for 13 runs and 19 hits in 9 2-3 innings in losing his prior two outings.

Greinke finished with a 4.19 ERA after his last start of the season. He had a 2.16 ERA last year.

"I don't know how I'll look at it in the long run, but right now it wasn't great," Greinke said of his season. "A lot more things could go wrong than they did. It just wasn't great."

Greinke called Jarrod Dyson the player of the game with two superb catches in center.

RANGERS 3, ANGELS 2: At Arlington, Texas, Vladimir Guerrero drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth for Texas and Cliff Lee pitched seven innings in his final tuneup before the playoffs. Nelson Cruz, who had three hits, doubled to right and stole third on a pitch in the dirt with one out in the eighth. Guerrero lined a single to left off reliever Jordan Walden (0-1) to give Texas the lead. Darren O'Day (6-2) relieved Lee and allowed a game-tying home run to Peter Bourjos. Lee, who struck out eight without a walk, gave up four singles and an unearned run. He will start Game 1 of the AL division series Wednesday against either Tampa Bay or New York.

BLUE JAYS 13, TWINS 2: At Minneapolis, Jose Bautista hit home runs No. 53 and 54, including a grand slam, and Toronto went deep six times. Edwin Encarnacion hit two homers and Jose Molina and Travis Snider added long balls for the Blue Jays, who have hit 253 homers this season, the fourth-highest total in baseball history. Bautista's second homer went to right field, his first this season that didn't go to either left or left-center.

WHITE SOX 8, RED SOX 2: At Chicago, Paul Konerko hit a grand slam that wrecked Jon Lester's bid for his 20th win, and Chicago won a game delayed by a power failure. The game was held up for 21 minutes in the sixth inning when most of the stadium lights went out. A power outage in the area was the cause. Konerko connected for his 39th homer of the season and the ninth grand slam of his career.

ATHLETICS 8, MARINERS 1: At Seattle, Gio Gonzalez battled through early control problems to throw seven scoreless innings.