Carlos Pena homered for the sixth consecutive game and the Tampa Bay Rays edged the Florida Marlin 6-5 in an interleague game at St. Petersburg, Fla., Saturday night.

The Rays belted three homers in the contest and, with the win, maintained their one-game lead in the AL East.

Tampa Bay jumped out to a 5-1 lead. Carl Crawford and Pena hit solo homers in the bottom of the first to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 advantage, and the Rays extended the lead to 5-1 in the third inning on a solo homer by Sean Rodriguez and run-scoring singles by Evan Longoria and Ben Zobrist.

The Marlins cut the deficit to 5-4 on a two-run homer from Wes Helms in the fourth and an RBI groundout by Hanley Ramirez in the fifth.

Tampa Bay scored what proved to be the game winner in the sixth on an RBI single by Reid Brignac. Ramirez later doubled and scored in the eighth on a balk by reliever Grant Balfour to close out the scoring.

Matt Garza (7-4) got the win while Ricky Nolasco (5-5) lasted just 2 1/3 innings in the loss. Rafael Soriano pitched a perfect ninth for his 16th save.