Detroit Tigers stay top thanks to Miguel Cabrera

Miguel Cabrera continued his red-hot hitting with two home runs and six RBI as the Detroit Tigers hung on to top spot in the American League Central with a 17-2 rout of the Houston Astros.

Cabrera, the reigning MVP went four-for-four, and the RBI count matched his career high.

While Detroit piled up 21 hits, Tigers starter Max Scherzer shut down Houston, pitching eight innings of one-run ball and at one point recording 16 straight outs.

The Kansas City Royals remain only a half-game back, however, after edging out the Chicago White Sox 2-0.

Jeremy Guthrie pitched his first career shut-out while Lorenzo Cain hit a two-run triple.

The Texas Rangers extended their lead atop the AL West with a 5-1 win over the Boston Red Sox.

Ian Kinsler continued his hot start with a first inning home run while Craig Gentry hit a three-run blast. The defeat for Boston cuts their lead at the top of the AL East to 1 1/2 games after the New York Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics 4-2 earlier in the day.
Struggling

Cleveland rolled to their sixth straight win as they beat the Minnesota Twins 7-3, highlighted by Jason Kipnis going three-for-four with a triple and a home run.

The Seattle Mariners made it three wins in a row as they routed the struggling Toronto Blue Jays 8-1, a fourth straight defeat for the big-spending Canadians.

Dustin Ackley hit a fourth-inning grand slam off Blue Jays ace R.A. Dickey to break the game open.

Freddy Garcia tossed six hitless innings on his season debut but did not factor in the decision as his Baltimore Orioles eventually edged out the Los Angeles Angels 5-4 in the 10th inning.

In the National League, Guillermo Quiroz hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift the San Francisco Giants to a 10-9 win over the rival Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Giants had earlier surrendered a 5-0 lead in a topsy-turvy game, with the Dodgers scoring seven runs in the fifth inning.

But Quiroz cleared the left-field wall off Dodgers reliever Brandon League to win it. That keeps the Giants level with Colorado at the top of the NL West.

Troy Tulowitzki marked his return to the Rockies line-up with three hits and three RBI, while Nolan Arenado had a grand slam in a 9-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

The St Louis Cardinals stretched their lead in the NL Central to two games as they edged out the Milwaukee Brewers 7-6 on Jon Jay's RBI single in the

ninth, taking advantage of a 5-4 Pittsburgh loss to Washington.

In Pittsburgh, Ryan Zimmerman pulled off a double steal in the ninth inning before scoring the winning run on Tyler Moore's sacrifice fly.

Rookie pitcher Jose Fernandez earned his first career win with seven scoreless innings as the Miami Marlins topped the Philadelphia Phillies 2-0.

The contest between two other NL East rivals, New York and Atlanta, was postponed.

The Cincinnati Reds scored four runs in the eighth inning to come from behind and beat the Chicago Cubs 6-4, while the Arizona Diamondbacks rolled to an 8-1 victory over the San Diego Padres.