Bronx, NY (Sports Network) - Mark Teixeira continued to swing a hot bat with three hits and three RBI and A.J. Burnett snapped out of an extended funk with six effective innings in a 4-3 Yankees win against Oakland.
Burnett (10-12) let in three runs on six hits with eight strikeouts and two walks to pick up his first win since July 28. He had lost in three straight turns on the mound and was 0-4 in his last five starts, all Yankee losses.
New York's fifth straight win maintained a one-game lead over the Rays at the top of the AL East standings after Tampa Bay beat Toronto Wednesday.
Mariano Rivera earned his 28th save by fanning Kurt Suzuki with a man on second to end the game.
Brett Anderson (3-6) took the loss for Oakland despite allowing a single earned run and eight hits in six innings. But it was the lefty's throwing error that ultimately led to three Yankee runs in the second.
He fell to 0-4 in his last five starts while the Athletics dropped to 4-5 on a 10-game road trip. Kevin Kouzmanoffhit a two-run homer in the setback.
Derek Jeter singled leading off the Yankee first and was quickly home on Teixeira's double to left-center.
In the second, Curtis Granderson and Eduardo Nunez had back-to-back base hits around a pair of outs and Jeter seemingly chopped an inning-ending ball back to Anderson, whose throwing error scored Granderson.
Nunez then swiped third and Nick Swisher walked to load the bases for Teixeira, who roped a two-run single into left field for a 4-0 lead.
Kouzmanoff got two runs back with one swing in the fourth. Rajai Davis led off the fifth with a ground-rule double, stole third and scored on Coco Crisp's groundout to make it a one-run game.
New York's bullpen did the job from there, starting with Joba Chamberlain in the sixth. Crisp and Daric Bartonstrung together a pair of two-out singles but Suzuki was retired on a fly ball to left.
Boone Logan and Kerry Wood combined to pitch the eighth, with the latter getting Davis to ground to short with two on to end the inning.
Rivera gave up a two-out single in the ninth to Barton, who stole second, but Suzuki swung through a fastball from the 40-year-old to end the game.
New York and Oakland will conclude their four-game series Thursday with CC Sabathia toeing the Yankee Stadium rubber opposite the A's Dallas Braden...New York picked up its sixth win in a row over Oakland and is 8-1 in the season series. The Yankees have also won 19 of the past 22 games of this series...Anderson is winless in four all-time meetings with the Yankees, having gone 0-3...Mark Ellis had three hits for Oakland...Teixeira increased his RBI total to 98 and has seven over the first three games of the series.