St. Petersburg, FL (Best E Casino) - Carlos Pena's solo blast in the bottom of the sixth inning drove in the go-ahead run, and the Tampa Bay Rays went on to top the Detroit Tigers, 5-2, in the opener of a three-game weekend series at Tropicana Field.

Scott Kazmir went just 4 2/3 innings for Tampa Bay, allowing two runs on three hits. The 24-year-old lefty matched his career-high with six walks against five strikeouts. Kazmir had been lights out in eight previous starts at home this season, going 5-1 while posting a 1.68 earned-run average in 48 1/3 innings.

Grant Balfour (3-1) fanned three over 1 1/3 scoreless innings to pick up the win. Tampa Bay remains three games ahead of Boston for first place in the AL East after the Red Sox defeated the Oakland Athletics, 2-1, in 12 innings.

Akinori Iwamura finished 2-for-4 with a double, an RBI and a run scored for the Rays, who have won three games in a row. Cliff Floyd had two hits, walked and scored a run, while Evan Longoria added a solo home run.

"It's always nice to get a win," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "We played really well again tonight. The bullpen was outstanding."

Zach Miner (5-4) gave up four runs -- three earned -- on eight hits over 5 1/3 innings to absorb the loss for Detroit, which has dropped two straight.

Miguel Cabrera had an RBI triple for the Tigers, who managed only four hits in the setback, though, they did draw nine walks.

Pena drove a 3-2 fastball over the center field wall to open the sixth inning and give the Rays a 3-2 lead. Floyd then doubled and advanced to third on a Dioner Navarro groundout. Joel Zumaya then came on from the bullpen and uncorked a wild pitch to make it a 4-2 game.

J.P. Howell started the seventh for Tampa Bay and promptly served up a lead- off double to Curtis Granderson. Howell then plunked Magglio Ordonez with two outs and walked Cabrera to load the bases before Dan Wheeler took over on the mound and retired Gary Sheffield on a grounder to preserve the Rays' two-run lead.

Tampa Bay added an insurance run in the bottom half on Longoria's 20th home run of the season, a two-out blast to left.

Wheeler tossed a scoreless eighth and Troy Percival duplicated the feat in the ninth to collect his 24th save of the season.

Kazmir was not sharp early on, issuing four walks in the opening frame to force in a run. Detroit tacked on another run in the top of the third when Placido Polanco drew a lead-off walk and scored on a two-out triple by Cabrera.

"I thought we did a good job of laying off pitches and getting him in trouble, but we didn't do a good job keeping him in trouble," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. "We let some early chances get away, obviously."

Tampa Bay came back to tie the game in their half of the third. Jason Bartlett led off with a triple to the gap in left-center, then raced home on Iwamura's RBI double. Iwamura took third on a B.J. Upton groundout and later scored on a passed ball.

Game Notes

Pena's home run upped his season total to 19...The Rays are 41-16 at home in 2008. Their 41 wins leads the majors and matches the club record set in 2004 and 2006...Percival moved ahead of Randy Myers for sole possession of eighth place on the career saves list with 348...Granderson has hit safely in 11 straight games...Detroit left 12 men on base, while the Rays stranded six...Detroit's Kenny Rogers (8-6) and Tampa Bay's Andy Sonnanstine (10-6) are scheduled to start on Saturday.