St. Petersburg, Fla. ? Nick Swisher was eager to return to the Oakland Athletics’ lineup after being sidelined by a strained left hamstring.

Swisher hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer with two outs in the top of the ninth to lead the Athletics to a 5-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Friday night.

“He likes big moments,” Oakland manager Bob Geren said. “He rises to the occasion a lot.”

Shannon Stewart walked, and Mark Ellis singled off Gary Glover (0-2) with one out in the ninth. Brian Stokes replaced Glover and struck out Eric Chavez before Swisher hit a 2-2 pitch into the right-field stands.

“I don’t do well when I can’t play,” Swisher said. “I don’t know what to do. So I just bother a lot of people. It’s nice to get into the lineup.”

Swisher was the designated hitter in his first start since getting hurt on April 24. He stepped out of the batter’s box a couple of times with the announced crowd of 11,546 standing before hitting his fifth homer of the season.

“When the crowd gets going like that, it’s hard to keep nerves down,” Swisher said. “When you get in those situations, especially me being a hyper guy, my biggest thing is just trying to calm down, get in the box and put a good swing on it.”

Justin Duchscherer (3-1) pitched a scoreless eighth for the win. Huston Street got the final three outs for his eighth save.

The Devil Rays had only two batters reach base before Elijah Dukes hit a solo homer off Dan Haren with two outs in the sixth to put Tampa Bay ahead 2-1.

A lack of offensive support early on cost Haren his fourth straight win. He gave up two runs, four hits and struck out nine over seven innings.

“The guys’ been lights out for us all season long,” Swisher said. “The only frustrating part about it was we couldn’t get him the win.”

Haren is 3-2 with a 1.75 earned-run average this season.

Orioles 3, Indians 2 (10)

Baltimore – Nick Markakis singled in the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning, giving Baltimore a comeback victory over Cleveland. Jay Payton homered and scored the decisive run for the Orioles, who snapped a four-game losing streak. Markakis drove in the final two runs for Baltimore, which improved to 2-14 when trailing after seven innings.

Angels 5, White Sox 1

Anaheim, Calif. – Darin Erstad lost a fly ball in the twilight during his first game back at Angels Stadium, resulting in an RBI double by Mike Napoli, and Los Angeles beat Chicago to make Mike Scioscia the winningest manager in franchise history.

Red Sox 2, Twins 0

Minneapolis – Tim Wakefield threw seven innings, and David Ortiz homered to lead Boston over Minnesota. Wakefield (3-3) held the AL’s top-hitting team to three hits and never allowed a runner past second base to outduel Carlos Silva (2-2).

Mariners 15, Yankees 11

New York – Yuniesky Betancourt hit a tiebreaking two-run double in an eight-run fifth inning, and the Mariners piled on the offense in a victory over the Yankees that ended New York’s three-game winning streak.

Jose Guillen, Kenji Johjima, Betancourt and Jose Lopez – the bottom four batters in Seattle’s starting lineup – combined to go 9-for-18 with 10 RBIs.

Rangers 7, Blue Jays 1

Arlington, Texas – Hank Blalock hit a two-run homer, Brandon McCarthy pitched six sharp innings, and Texas beat Toronto to end a five-game losing streak.