St. Petersburg, FL - Jacoby Ellsbury homered and drove in three runs, Aaron Cook stopped his five-game losing streak and the Boston Red Sox beat the sliding Tampa Bay Rays 5-2 on Monday night.

Tampa Bay, coming off a 1-5 road trip to Baltimore and New York, fell 5 1/2 games behind the AL East-leading Yankees. The Rays started play four games back of the Orioles -- who were at Seattle later Monday night -- for the second AL wild-card spot.

Ellsbury hit a two-run homer in the sixth and added an RBI single during a three-run seventh for the Red Sox, who were eliminated from playoff contention Sunday. Cook (4-10) allowed one run and five hits over six innings in his first win since Aug. 6.