THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ST. PETERSBURG &ndash Alex Rodriguez's ninth-inning homer was upheld in baseball's first use of instant replay, and the New York Yankees beat the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays 8-4 on Wednesday night.
Rodriguez, who went 3-for-4 and drove in four runs, hit a towering two-run shot off Troy Percival that third-base umpire Brian Runge immediately ruled a homer when it bounced off the catwalk behind the foul pole in left field.
Rays catcher Dioner Navarro protested, bringing manager Joe Maddon out of the dugout. After convening, the umpires left the field to review the tape, a process that took 2 minutes and 15 seconds to back the on-field call.
Boston, which beat Baltimore 5-4 on Wednesday, moved within three games of Tampa Bay in the division.
Edwar Ramirez (5-1) worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam after Carl Pavano ran into trouble in the fifth. He was the winner despite facing only three batters as the Yankees extended their road winning streak to a season-high six straight.
Rodriguez, who has two homers and nine RBIs in the first three games of a 10-game, four-city road trip, had a run-scoring double in the third off Edwin Jackson (11-9) and an RBI single in the fourth against Chad Bradford. The home run was his 31st of the season and 549th of his career, breaking a tie for 12th place with Mike Schmidt on the all-time list.
Robinson Cano, Ivan Rodriguez and Jason Giambi had RBI doubles off Jackson, who lasted 3 1/3 innings.
The Rays, who had one hit after the fifth inning, lost a series for the first time since the All-Star break.
It was the third time since the break that Tampa Bay lost consecutive games. The Rays had been 12-0-1 in series since losing a season-high seven straight games from July 7-13 to turn a five-game lead over the Red Sox into a half-game deficit.
While the Rays weren't charged with any errors Wednesday night, sloppy defense contributed to four infield singles and helped the Yankees advance baserunners at will on hits to the outfield.
In losing the series opener 7-2 on Tuesday night, the Rays ran themselves out of a potential big inning and committed a throwing error that helped New York break the game open after Xavier Nady hit a two-run homer.
