Payton, Zito Lead A’s Past Tigers, 9-5

Jay Payton hit a grand slam and drove in five runs to help Barry Zito win his seventh consecutive start and the Oakland Athletics win for the 10th time in 11 games, 9-5 over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday at Oakland.

Payton’s homer was the big blow against Nate Robertson (5-9) during a six-run fourth inning. The streaking A’s, who have won 30 of 37, moved to within 2 1/2 games of the Angels in the West Division -- their smallest deficit since being two behind after games of May 2.

Zito (10-8) gave up five runs and 10 hits in seven innings, benefiting from the run support he lacked when he started the season 3-8.

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Seattle 3, Cleveland 2 -- Ichiro Suzuki hit a pair of solo home runs -- breaking a 75-year-old major league record in the process -- to help the Mariners win at Seattle.

Suzuki led off the fourth inning with a homer, his eighth this season and the first hit off C.C. Sabathia (6-9). That gave him 1,058 hits in his career, the most ever for a player in his first five seasons, breaking the mark set by Paul Waner from 1926 from ’30.

Waner reached 1,057 hits in 747 games; Suzuki has played 737 games.

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Tampa Bay 7, Kansas City 3 -- Jonny Gomes had the first three-homer game in the franchise history to lead the Devil Rays at St. Petersburg, Fla. He hit solo shots off Zack Greinke (3-13) in the third and fifth innings and another solo homer off Mike MacDougal in the eighth.

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Chicago 9, Baltimore 6 -- A.J. Pierzynski and Jermaine Dye hit consecutive homers during a four-run eighth inning at Baltimore, and the White Sox handed the Orioles their 12th loss in 14 games. The loss dropped Baltimore (51-52) under .500 for the first time since April 9.

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Boston 6, Minnesota 2 -- David Wells (9-5) limited the Twins to two runs in seven-plus innings at Fenway Park. He took a shutout into the eighth and gave up seven hits and didn’t walk a batter.

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Texas 3, Toronto 2 -- Joaquin Benoit (3-1) and four relievers combined on a six-hitter and Adrian Gonzalez homered at Toronto to lead the Rangers to their fourth win in a row. Blue Jay starter Dustin McGowan, making his major league debut, yielded one run and two hits in five innings.