Rays top M's, take East lead

| September 25, 2010 9:00 PM

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - Willy Aybar drove in two runs, Rafael Soriano set a team record with his 44th save of the season and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Seattle Mariners 5-3 on Friday night.

Tampa Bay reduced its magic number to three to clinch the franchise's second playoff berth and moved into first place in the AL East by a half game after New York lost to Boston.

Seattle's Jason Vargas (9-12) lost his seventh straight start, which is one off the team record held by Randy Johnson (1992) and Rick Honeycutt (1980).

Vargas gave up five runs and six hits over 4 1-3 innings.

Jeff Niemann (11-7) allowed three runs and seven hits in 5 2-3 innings and won for the first time since returning from a strained right shoulder on Aug. 25. The Rays right-hander had been 0-4 with 14.43 ERA over his previous five starts after a 20-game stint on the disabled list.

Adam Moore had a pair of run-scoring singles for the Mariners, who are 23-53 on the road this season. Ichiro Suzuki went 2 for 5, giving him a major league-best 65 multi-hit games this year.

Kelly Shoppach put the Rays ahead 1-0 on a second-inning RBI double. Aybar made it 2-0 with a sacrifice fly in the third.

Seattle tied it at 2 on run-scoring singles by Franklin Gutierrez and Moore during the fourth. Moore pulled Seattle within 5-3 on a sixth-inning RBI that ended Niemann's night.