Tampa Bay's Dioner Navarro, left, slides past Kansas City catcher John Buck on B.J. Upton's sacrifice fly in the sixth inning. The Royals fell, 5-3, to the Rays on Friday in Kansas City, Mo.

Kansas City, Mo. ? Road victories have been rare for Tampa Bay. Edwin Jackson and the bullpen made sure the Rays got one Friday night.

Jackson surpassed his victory total for last season, and the Rays snapped a seven-game road losing streak with a 5-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals.

The Rays, who moved one game in front of Boston in the AL East, won on the road for the first time since June 29, at Pittsburgh.

“It’s so nice to get a road victory,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “If we’re going to get to the promised land, we’ve got to win on the road. We’ve got to do a better job of that. I would say the pitching pretty much got that done for us tonight. Our bullpen was fabulous tonight.”

The Rays are 20-26 on the road.

“Finally,” reliever J.P. Howell said of picking up a victory away from home. “We get to kill the road streak, squash that. It started to get a little mental. We started talking about it in the clubhouse. That’s something you don’t want to do. We realize we’re going to have to win home or away. The majority of our games are on the road now, so we better get used to it.”

The Rays play 35 of their final 60 games on the road.

Jackson (6-7), who was 5-15 last season, did not yield a hit until Billy Butler homered to center with two outs in the fifth.

John Buck led off the sixth with a homer, the only other hit Jackson allowed.

Jackson allowed two runs in five-plus innings, walking two and striking out two. Jackson and four relievers held the Royals to four hits.

“I was surprised,” Jackson said of coming out after 74 pitches. “He’s the manager. My job is to do what I’m asked to do. He felt that I needed to come out of the game. Who am I to question? It’s not about to be really selfish. It’s not always about me, me, me. It’s a team game. We won, and that’s the most important thing.”

Carlos Pena’s 16th homer with two outs in the ninth gave the Rays a 5-2 lead.

“It gave us a little room to work with,” Pena said of his home run. “A little breathing room is huge for our bullpen.”

It was Pena’s 14th career home run against the Royals.

“You definitely want to play well at home, but playing on the road is what is going to make the difference, I believe,” Pena said. “Wins are the road are going to be incredibly huge. I know the last time things were rough. It’s good to get that out of the way.”

Troy Percival worked the ninth for his 21st save, but gave up a homer to Ross Gload.

“Carlos’ home run gave us a boost in the ninth inning,” Jackson said. “They hit a home run, so it would have been a tie game. That was huge on his part.”

The Royals had two base-runners over the first four innings, but Jackson erased both on double-play grounders.

“We didn’t have too many quality at-bats, other than the balls hit out of the ball park,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said.

Royals right-hander Brian Bannister (7-9) is now winless in his last five starts.