Evan Longoria homered and drove in five runs, and the last-place Tampa Bay Rays again played the spoiler’s role in a 7-6 victory over the Orioles on Thursday night in Baltimore.

The Orioles fell two games behind the first-place Red Sox in the AL East.

Tampa Bay has won three straight, including the last two of a three-game series in Toronto. The Rays also defeated the wild-card contending Yankees on Sunday.

Longoria hit his career-high-tying 33d homer with two on in the first inning and added a two-run single in the fourth to increase his team-high RBI total to 91.

Coming off a 6-3 road trip culminated with two successive wins in Boston, the Orioles fell flat against a team they dominated for much of the season. Baltimore is now 11-5 against Tampa Bay, 6-1 at home.

Alex Colome worked the ninth for his 33d save. After the Orioles got runners at first and third with one out, the righthander struck out major league home run leader Mark Trumbo and slugger Chris Davis.

Baltimore went 3 for 15 with runners in scoring position.

Although the temperature was a comfortable 72 degrees and the Orioles are in the midst of a playoff push, the game attracted an announced crowd of only 19,233.

Longoria put the Rays up, 3-0, before Yovani Gallardo (5-8) got an out. Baltimore answered in the bottom half with a two-run single by Matt Wieters and a two-run double by J.J. Hardy.

Tampa Bay pulled even in the second, went ahead in the third and used Longoria’s two-run single to make it 7-4 in the fourth.

Gallardo gave up six runs and seven hits in 3⅓ innings. In 21 starts this season, he’s surrendered 21 earned runs in the first inning.

Twins 5, Tigers 1 — Brian Dozier’s two-run single highlighted a four-run second inning and Minnesota handed the Tigers a crucial loss in Detroit.

The Tigers were only able to split four games with the lowly Twins, hurting them in the crowded AL wild-card race. Detroit came into the series with a 10-2 record against Minnesota.

Hector Santiago (12-8) got the win, holding the Tigers to one run on six hits in 5⅔ innings.

Mike Pelfrey (4-10) lost in his first major-league appearance since July 31. He started the game with a 60-pitch limit, but only lasted 36, giving up four runs in 1⅔ innings.

‘‘The bullpen is doing a great job, and keeping us in games, but we can’t get anything started,’’ Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said.

The Twins took the lead in the second on Max Kepler’s RBI single, and he moved to third when Miguel Cabrera missed a pick-off attempt. Eduardo Escobar singled to make it 2-0, and Eddie Rosario beat out a bunt single.

Pelfrey retired the next two batters, but Dozier lined a soft single to left to give the Twins a 4-0 lead and bring Blaine Hardy out of the bullpen.

The Tigers had two runners on in the third, fourth, and fifth innings, but Santiago escaped all three jams without allowing a run.

Brewers 5, Cubs 4 — Scooter Gennett blooped a tiebreaking, two-run double into left field in the seventh inning, dashing Chicago’s party plans to clinch the NL Central title before a Wrigley Field crowd of 41,362.

The Cubs were hoping to begin a 10-game homestand with a boozy celebration of their first division title since 2008.

But Keon Broxton homered and Orlando Arcia drove in two runs for Milwaukee, making the Cubs wait for the result of St. Louis’ late game at San Francisco, where a Cardinals loss would clinch it for Chicago.

White Sox 2, Indians 1 — Jose Abreu continued his torrid streak with a home run and single and Carlos Sanchez drove in the winning run in the ninth inning in host Chicago’s victory over Cleveland.

The White Sox took three of four games in the series to conclude a 6-4 homestead against three playoff hopefuls. The first-place Indians remained six games ahead of the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central.

After Omar Narvaez led off the ninth with a single off Bryan Shaw (2-5), pinch runner Leury Garcia stole second while Avisail Garcia struck out. Sanchez followed with a bloop single to right-center.

David Robertson (5-3) pitched a scoreless inning to earn the victory.

Chicago’s James Shields gave up one run on three hits and three walks in six innings, and remained winless in his last nine starts.

After a rocky third, Shields mowed down nine consecutive batters before Carlos Santana reached on an infield hit in the sixth.

Cleveland counterpart Mike Clevinger retired seven batters in a row before Abreu led off the fourth with a homer for a 1-1 tie.

It was the sixth homer and 22d RBI in his last 17 games.

Athletics 14, Royals 5 — Stephen Vogt drove in five runs, Ryon Healy hit a mammoth three-run homer, and Oakland routed host Kansas City.

The A’s swept a four-game series at Kansas City for the first time in their history; they outscored the Royals, 43-12, the largest Oakland run differential in a four-game series in franchise history.

Vogt had a two-run double in a five-run third, walked with the bases loaded in the fourth and hit a two-run homer in the sixth. The five RBIs matched a career high.

Pirates 15, Phillies 2 — Andrew McCutchen hit two solo homers, Chad Kuhl pitched six effective innings, and Pittsburgh beat host Philadelphia.

Jordy Mercer hit a three-run homer and John Jaso and Sean Rodriguez also went deep to help the Pirates split a four-game series.