NEW YORK -- Brett Gardner found out he was going to the All-Star Game about halfway through the game.

For the rest of the New York Yankees, Thursday seemed like it was an All-Star type of day.

Gardner homered, first baseman Mark Teixeira equaled his RBI total from last season, center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury had a two-run single and right-hander Masahiro Tanaka pitched into the eighth inning in New York's 6-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics.

The Yankees won for the 16th time in their last 22 home games by getting a variety of contributions.

Gardner opened his seventh game with at least three hits by homering on the first pitch he saw from Oakland's Jesse Chavez. Teixeira increased his league-leading RBI total to 62 with a single in the third. And Ellsbury drove in his first runs since returning from a knee injury Wednesday.

After those hits, Gardner found out he was an All-Star, learning the news via an announcement on the PA system while warming up in left field for the fifth inning. Gardner, who was fourth in the results for the final vote, is replacing Kansas City's Alex Gordon, who injured his groin Wednesday.

"I was kind of turning around, walking towards the bullpen," Gardner said. "So I saw the camera on me in the outfield, which doesn't usually happen. I saw myself up on the big screen as I walking out to left field. I just thought that was kind of random and then obviously they made the announcement after that. Completely caught me off guard."

"It makes you feel good about your club," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "It makes you feel good about your club, how close they are and how bad they wanted it for him."

The announcement came while Tanaka (5-3) was in the midst of ending a career-high four-game winless stretch. He allowed both his runs and both his hits in the second inning.

"That second inning when he gave up the runs, he made a couple of mistakes. And then he didn't make them after that," Girardi said.

Tanaka went a season-high 7 2/3 innings and threw a season-high 114 pitches. He finished with a flourish by retiring the final 13 hitters and 18 of the final 19.

"I think I was able to execute all of my pitches and throw them where I wanted them to go," Tanaka said through an interpreter.

Tanaka had a 4-2 lead in his final innings thanks to a two-run single in the fourth by Ellsbury that followed a double by third baseman Cole Figueroa on a ball that went off the first-base bag and deflected off first-base umpire John Tumpane and into right field.

After a brief meeting by the umpires, the original call was upheld; and, two pitches later, Ellsbury followed with a single that began in fair territory and wound up in foul ground once it reached the outfield.

"I thought it was foul," Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. "The first one I thought for sure. The second one ... I mean our angle is tough and obviously the ball gets there in a hurry and, when a lefty hooks it, there's some angle to it, but I thought it was foul."

New York added its final two runs when Ellsbury reached on a throwing error by shortstop Marcus Semien with two outs in the eighth. The high throw on the routine ground ball was Semien's 28th error, and it proved somewhat costly because Oakland would have had the potential tying run up in the ninth.

Designated hitter Billy Butler and left fielder Mark Canha had RBI doubles in the second off Tanaka, but just two more Oakland runners reached and the Athletics lost for the eighth time in 13 games.

Chavez (4-9) lost to the Yankees for the first time in five career decisions, allowing four runs and seven hits in five innings.

"It's just location," said Chavez, who recorded his career-high ninth loss. "Early in the year, those pitches were getting swung at and onto the ground, and now they're getting taken for balls and I have to fight back into the count. And that's the thing that frustrates me."

New York took a 1-0 lead with one out in the first when Gardner drove a first-pitch fastball into the right-center-field seats. Butler's double to left field made it 1-1 with nobody out in the second after right fielder Josh Reddick had reached on catcher's interference. Canha's double with two outs gave Oakland a 2-1 lead.

The Yankees tied it on Teixeira's single with nobody out in the third and went ahead by getting three straight one-out hits in the fourth.

NOTES: Oakland LHP Scott Kazmir did some light throwing Thursday after leaving Wednesday's start after the third inning with left triceps tightness. Manager Bob Melvin said he wanted to see how Kazmir felt during his throwing session before proceeding and after the game said there were no issues. ... The Yankees purchased the contract INF Cole Figueroa from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, optioned INF Jose Pirela there and designated OF Taylor Dugas for assignment. ... Yankees 3B Chase Headley missed his second straight game with a sore right calf. After the game, he said he rode a bike for about 20 minutes without difficulty and hopes to play this weekend in Boston ... New York INF Brendan Ryan (back) began a rehab assignment with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and was 1-for-3 while playing five innings at third base. Ryan will continue his rehab Friday with Double-A Trenton.