UNDATED (AP) β The Kansas City Royals won for the ninth time in 10 games to maintain their half-game lead over Detroit in the AL Central. Jason Vargas retired his final 23 batters to complete a three-hitter in the Royals’ 3-0 shutout of Oakland. The Tigers kept pace as Nick Castellanos (kas-tee-AH’-nohs) hit an RBI triple and a solo homer in an 8-4 win over Pittsburgh, which keeps the Pirates 1 Β½ games behind the NL-Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) β The Los Angeles Angels are within 2 Β½ games of first-place Oakland in the AL West after Howie Kendrick hit a go-ahead, two-run single in the eighth inning of the Halos’ 4-3 win over Philadelphia in Anaheim. Jered Weaver gave up eight hits but just two runs in six innings for his 13th win.
UNDATED (AP) β Adam Jones belted a tiebreaking, three-run homer with two out in the bottom of the eighth to give Baltimore a 5-3 win over the New York Yankees. Jonathan Schoop (skohp) tied the game with a solo homer in the eighth before the AL East-leading Orioles moved 7 Β½ games over Toronto. The Blue Jays lost ground as Kendrys Morales hit a two-run homer and Hisashi Iwakuma (hihs-SAH’-shee ee-wah-KOO’-mah) worked 6 2/3 shutout innings to lead Seattle’s 2-0 win over Toronto, keeping the Mariners in a tie with Detroit for the second AL wild-card berth.
UNDATED (AP) β The Atlanta Braves stayed five games behind the NL East-leading Washington Nationals and trimmed the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lead in the NL West to five games over San Francisco. The Braves had dropped 11 of 13 before Justin Upton singled home the tiebreaking run in the fifth inning of Atlanta’s 3-2 triumph over the Dodgers. The Giants inched closer to Los Angeles as Angel Pagan hit a tiebreaking, two-run single in a seventh-run seventh that pushed San Francisco past the Chicago White Sox 7-1.
UNDATED (AP) β The Nationals earned their 10th straight win at Citi Field as Asdrubal (as-DROO’-bul) Cabrera hit a solo homer in the eighth inning to put Washington ahead 3-1 in a 3-2 verdict over the New York Mets. Jordan Zimmermann gave up an unearned run and five hits over 6 1/3 innings. Milwaukee failed to pad its 1 Β½-game lead in the NL Central as Javier Baez and Anthony Rizzo hit back-to-back solo homers to power the Chicago Cubs past the Brewers 4-2.
