Alex Rodriguez hit his 300th home run with the Yankees, Russell Martin and Steve Pearce also homered, and New York regained sole possession of first place in the AL East by defeating the Baltimore Orioles 8-5 on Friday night.

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The Yankees built a 7-0 lead in the fifth inning against rookie Wei-Yin Chen (12-9) and held on for their third win in nine games.

New York had lost eight of 11 to the Orioles, including the opener of this four-game series that runs through Sunday.

Adam Jones, Robert Andino and Manny Machado homered for the Orioles, who got three hits from Nate McLouth but missed a chance to move ahead of the Yankees for the first time since June 7.

Baltimore was backed by a near-sellout crowd of 40,861. But unlike Thursday night, when the Orioles hit six homers in a 10-6 win, most of the fans went home disappointed.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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