Alfonso Soriano is having the time of his baseball life and so are the astounding Texas Rangers.

They hit five home runs Monday night in an 8-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners, grabbed a 21/2-game lead over Oakland, and moved three ahead of Anaheim in the AL West.

"Nobody (thought) this team would be in first place right now," said Soriano, who contributed his 12th homer to the team that finished last in the division for four straight seasons. "I'm having so much fun right now with this team."

Hank Blalock led the Texas power barrage with a pair of homers, and Kevin Mench and Mark Teixeira also homered against the last-place Mariners.

Blalock had his 19th and 20th home runs to tie Boston's Manny Ramirez for the AL lead. It was his third career two-homer game and second of the season.

At St. Petersburg. Fla., Victor Zambrano pitched six solid innings to win his fifth straight decision, and Tampa Bay earned its 16th victory in 18 games.Geoff Blum and Jose Cruz Jr. homered in support of Zambrano (8-4), who hasn't lost in nine starts since May 15.Tampa Bay improved to a major league-best 27-8 since May 20 and climbed back over .500 (37-36) two days after becoming the first team in major league history to get above the break-even point after being 18 games below.Roy Halladay (6-5) allowed seven runs on eight hits in five innings - his shortest outing of the season.

At Kansas City, Mo., David Newhan had three hits, including a two-run homer, and the Orioles snapped a seven-game road losing streak.Rookie left-hander Erik Bedard (3-2) pitched 6 1-3 shutout innings for the Orioles, who won for just the second time in 11 road games.Brian Roberts, Miguel Tejada and Javy Lopez each drove in two runs for Baltimore.The Royals dropped to a season-low 17 games under .500, the worst in the league. They've lost five straight and are 0-4 since trading center fielder Carlos Beltran to Houston.Darrell May (5-9) lost for the first time in four decisions.