For at least one at-bat, Richie Sexson stopped Seattle fans from booing him.

The slugger, hitting under .200 for much of the year, hit Matt Guerrier's second pitch of the ninth inning over the left-center field fence to lift the Mariners to a dramatic, 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Monday night.

The fans cheered Sexson as he rounded the bases, and his teammates mobbed him at home plate as the Mariners won for the sixth time in seven games, to stay one percentage point ahead of the New York Yankees in the wild card standings. Seattle inched to within three games of the idle Los Angeles Angels atop the AL West.

Sexson was glad to hear the cheers, but hasn't enjoyed how the fans have reacted to him this year because of his struggles. Even after a two-run double to start his return home, he still heard boos.

"With three or four years of not winning here, it's kind of strange that we're winning and they're booing," Sexson said. "Guess that's not how Seattle rolls."

Don't get him wrong, he understands he's been in a season-long funk.

"Nothing against them. I dug my own grave with the fans," said the Seattle slugger.

At Detroit, Mark Ellis homered, Marco Scutaro drove in three runs and Chad Gaudin (9-8) struck out a career-high nine for Oakland.The Tigers won the two previous games and had a chance to win a series for the first time since sweeping Minnesota from July 17-19. Since then, they are 8-17.Chad Durbin (7-5) gave up six runs, six hits and four walks in 4 1-3 innings.Shannon Stewart went 4-for-5 for Oakland and Jack Cust had three hits.

At Boston, Tim Wakefield (14-10) held Tampa Bay hitless into the seventh inning, and Julio Lugo had three hits for the slumping Red Sox.Wakefield allowed two hits in eight innings, striking out six and walking two to improve to 18-2 lifetime against the Devil Rays. Jonathan Papelbon pitched the ninth for his 28th save.James Shields (9-8) allowed one run and five hits in six innings, striking out five for the Devil Rays.

At New York, Melky Cabrera raced home on Derek Jeter's grounder in the ninth inning to lift the Yankees.Baltimore tied it in the top of the ninth against Mariano Rivera (3-3) but couldn't stop streaking New York, which has won four straight.

At Kansas City, Mo. — Mark Teahen homered for the first time in more than two months and Kansas City took advantage of three Toronto errors.Teahen, who led the Royals with 18 home runs in 2006, hit his sixth home run in the first inning, ending a drought of 250 at-bats without a homer.