B.J. Upton homered and drove in three runs and Ben Zobrist came within a double of the cycle as the Tampa Bay Rays topped the New York Yankees 5-1 and kept Derek Jeter two hits shy of 3,000 on Thursday night.

Jeff Niemann (4-4) stalled Jeter's pursuit of the milestone and knocked New York out of first place in the AL East with 7 1/3 stellar innings. He allowed one run and six hits to win his third straight decision.

Jeter doubled on the first pitch he saw from Niemann, but grounded out in his next four at-bats to leave him with 2,998 hits in his quest to become the first Yankee and 28th major leaguer to reach the 3,000 mark.

Upton slammed a two-run homer in the fifth and had an RBI single in the third off Yankees starter Bartolo Colon (6-4), who was denied his fifth straight victory after surrendering five runs on a season-high 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Zobrist tripled and scored in the first and belted a solo homer in the third as Tampa Bay moved within 3 ½ games of division-leading Boston and three behind the Yankees.

Robinson Cano homered in the sixth to get New York on the board.