UNDATED (AP) — The Kansas City Royals have a little more room between themselves and the Detroit Tigers atop the American League Central. The Royals moved 1 1/2 games ahead by completing a three-game sweep of Texas while the Tigers failed to take their third straight from the Indians.

Alex Gordon hit a two-run homer and Jason Vargas pitched shutout ball in the Royals' 4-1 triumph against the Rangers. Vargas gave up six hits in 6 2/3 innings for his 11th win. Greg Holland worked the ninth for his 42nd save.

In Cleveland, Danny Salazar tossed his first career complete game by striking out nine and allowing eight hits in the Indians 7-0 shutout of Detroit. Carlos Santana socked a two-run homer and Jose Ramirez went 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored.

Elsewhere in the majors:

— Adam LaRoche capped his five-RBI afternoon by delivering the tiebreaking grounder in the 14th inning before Asdrubal (as-DROO'-bul) Cabrera belted a two-run homer to cap Washington's scoring in an 8-5 win over the Dodgers in Los Angeles. LaRoche tied the game with a two-run homer in the ninth and added a two-run single in the 12th before the Nationals scored three times in the 14th to maintain their seven-game lead over Atlanta in the NL East.

— The Giants remain two games behind the NL West-leading Dodgers. Nolan Arenado hit a go-ahead, three-run homer in the sixth inning and Corey Dickerson followed with his second homer of the game to lead the Rockies past the Giants 9-2 in Colorado. Michael McKenry also went deep to support Christian Bergman, who gave up nine hits but just two runs in six innings.

— St. Louis made it five straight wins and stretched its NL Central lead to three games over Milwaukee as Peter Bourjos (BOHR'-juhs) singled home the lone run in the bottom of the ninth to give the Cardinals a 1-0 victory and a three-game sweep of Pittsburgh. Shelby Miller kept the game scoreless by holding the Pirates to three hits in seven innings before the Cards received two scoreless innings from their bullpen.

— The Brewers absorbed their eighth consecutive loss as Chris Valaika hit a two-run homer and Jorge Soler (soh-LEHR') lined a two-run double in the Cubs' 6-2 win over Milwaukee. Kyle Hendricks improved to 6-1 in 10 starts, giving up just two runs despite yielding nine hits in 5 2/3 innings.

— Miguel Gonzalez tossed a four-hitter and Baltimore belted three solo homers in a 6-0 shutout of Cincinnati. Jonathan Schoop (skohp) homered and had three RBIs, while David Lough (loh) and Chris Davis added round-trippers to help the AL East leaders stay 9 1/2 games ahead of the second-place Yankees.

— The Yanks were 5-1 winners against Boston as Brian McCann went 4-for-4 with a two-run homer and three RBIs. Hiroki Kuroda limited the Red Sox to a run and four hits with eight strikeouts in seven innings to help New York climb within four games of the Tigers for the second AL wild-card berth.

— Chris Carter homered twice and had three RBIs in Houston's 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels, which keeps the Halos' lead in the AL West at 4 1/2 games over Oakland. Collin McHugh was terrific over 7 2/3 innings, striking out eight and holding the Angels to a run and four hits.

— Kyle Seager and Corey Hart hit seventh-inning homers and Felix Hernandez picked up his 14th victory in Seattle's 2-1 win over the Athletics in Oakland. Hernandez went eight innings and gave up only three hits, including Adam Dunn's fourth-inning homer. The outcome puts the Mariners a half-game behind Detroit for the final AL wild-card berth.

— The Braves are within a half-game of Milwaukee for the final wild-card berth after Christian Bethancourt had three hits and B. J. Upton smacked a two-run homer in Atlanta's 7-4 win over Philadelphia. Bethancourt delivered an RBI single in the bottom of the second to end the Braves' 25-inning scoreless streak.

— Dioner Navarro and Edwin Encarnacion (ehn-kahr-nah-see-OHN') each hit two-run homers and Danny Valencia had two RBIs in Toronto's 7-4 win at Tampa Bay. Adam Lind had four hits and scored twice for the Blue Jays.

— Kirk Nieuwenhuis (NOO'-ehn-hys) hit a two-run homer and Matt den Dekker had three hits as the New York Mets beat the Marlins 4-3 in Miami. Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton homered for the third straight game, tying him with Baltimore's Nelson Cruz for the major league lead with 36.

— Eduardo Nunez came within a homer of hitting for the cycle as he was 4-for-6 with two RBIs and two runs scored in Minnesota's 10-4 thrashing of the Chicago White Sox. Kennys Vargas had three RBIs and Eduardo Escobar collected three hits, including a two-run triple.

— Arizona beat San Diego 6-1 behind Josh Collmenter, who held the Padres to a run and five hits in seven innings. Daniel Hudson returned from two reconstructive elbow operations to pitch in the big leagues for the first time in more than two years, tossing a perfect eighth inning for the Diamondbacks.

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