American League

Astros 6, Royals 1

Houston's young hitters were disciplined Monday night against a veteran pitcher struggling with command, and it propelled the Astros to a win over the top team in the American League.

Chris Carter and Jose Altuve homered to back a solid start by rookie Lance McCullers in a victory over Kansas City.

In a matchup of teams with the best records in the AL, Houston snapped Kansas City's four-game winning streak. The Royals are 44-29 and the Astros are 45-34.

McCullers (4-2) allowed four hits and a run with six strikeouts in seven innings in his ninth major league start.

The Astros jumped on Joe Blanton (2-1) for five runs in the first three innings and Carter added a solo home run in the fifth to help them to the win.

"We didn't swing out of the zone too much, specifically early," manager A.J. Hinch said. "You always ask your guys to take whatever they give you and he was nibbling on the plate or just off the plate and we just continued to take our base, take our base ... we really were opportunistic with whatever we were being given."

Blanton, who didn't walk anyone in his first two starts this season, walked four and gave up five runs and five hits in just 2 2-3 innings. It was his first loss since Aug. 20, 2013. He was out of baseball in 2014 and started this season 2-0 with a 1.73 ERA after being called up from Triple-A Omaha.

"I take pride in not walking guys," Blanton said. "I can't think of too many games where I walked that many guys. You throw some borderline pitches that don't go your way. You throw some chase pitches that they don't swing at. Other than that, trying to fight command issues makes it that kind of day."

McCullers held the Royals scoreless until a solo homer by Salvador Perez cut the lead to 6-1 in the seventh inning.

He retired nine in a row after a single by Alex Gordon to start the second inning. Rios singled to start the fifth, but McCullers still faced the minimum in that inning after Christian Colon grounded into a double play.

Jarrod Dyson drew a walk to start the sixth but he set down the next three batters to end the inning.

"He had a really good breaking ball. ... It had good break on it," Kansas City's Lorenzo Cain said. "It definitely kept us off balance all night."

The Royals were without shortstop Alcides Escobar and first baseman Eric Hosmer, who both sat out with finger injuries.

Luis Valbuena singled with no outs in the second before Blanton walked Jon Singleton and Preston Tucker with one out to load the bases. A third consecutive walk, this one by Domingo Santana, made it 1-0.

Jason Castro's sacrifice fly pushed the lead to 2-0 before George Springer struck out to end the inning.

Altuve led off the second with a homer to the Crawford Boxes in left field to make it 3-0.

Valbuena singled with one out before Singleton drew a two-out walk. A bloop single by Tucker scored Valbuena and a single by Santana drove in another run to make it 5-0 and chase Blanton.

Santana, who went 0 for 17 with 14 strikeouts in his first stint in the majors last season, is hitting .250 with two doubles and two homers in 11 games this season.

"It's just trying to go out there and just have fun," he said. "Last year, I put too much pressure on myself."

Carter added a solo homer off of Brandon Finnegan in the fifth inning to snap an 0-for-7 slump.

Singleton doubled in the eighth inning for his first hit since being called up from Triple-A Fresno on Friday.

Indians 7, Rays 1

Rookie Cody Anderson took a bid for a perfect game into the seventh inning in his second major league start, and struggling Cleveland snapped a three-game losing streak with a victory over Tampa Bay.

Anderson (1-0) didn't allow a baserunner until Grady Sizemore homered against his old team on a 1-2 pitch with one out in the seventh. Evan Longoria followed with a single before the 24-year-old right-hander settled to retire the last four batters he faced.

Yan Gomes had three hits, including a solo homer in the eighth for the Indians, who limped into town after being shut out in both games of a doubleheader at Baltimore on Sunday. Michael Brantley also had three hits, including a RBI single, and Jason Kipnis drove in a run off rookie Nathan Karns (4-4) with one of his three hits.

Rangers 8, Orioles 1

Mitch Moreland hit two of the Rangers' four home runs off Bud Norris, and Texas got another winning effort on the road from left-hander Wandy Rodriguez in a victory over Baltimore.

Moreland hit a solo shot in the second inning and a two-run drive in the fourth. It was his sixth career two-homer game, the first since May 2013.

Carlos Corporan and Shin-Soo Choo added solo homers to help Texas secure its second win in nine games. The four home runs tied a season high, set April 9 in Oakland.

Joey Gallo contributed a three-run triple for the Rangers, who had lost 11 of 12 to the Orioles — including six straight at Camden Yards.

The loss ended Baltimore's four-game winning streak and dropped the Orioles to 18-9 in June, 10-2 at home.

National League

Brewers 7, Phillies 4

Jonathan Lucroy had four of the Brewers' season high-tying 16 hits and drove in two runs, leading Milwaukee to a victory over Philadelphia in a matchup of the two worst teams in baseball.

Ryan Braun had three hits with a double and an RBI, and Adam Lind and Aramis Ramirez each had a pair of RBIs for the Brewers, who have won five of seven.

Cesar Hernandez had a pair of hits and an RBI for Philadelphia.

The Phillies fell to a major league-worst 27-51 hours after the Phillies introduced Andy MacPhail as the new man in charge of the club.

The veteran baseball executive joined the Phillies with plans to take over as team president after this season.

Interleague

Athletics 7, Rockies 1

Josh Reddick and Ike Davis hit two-run homers in the first inning to back seven scoreless innings from Kendall Graveman, and Oakland snapped a three-game losing streak by beating Colorado.

Billy Butler also homered off David Hale (2-3) and scored three runs as power-starved Oakland matched its season high for homers. The power barrage helped the A's bounce back after getting swept in a three-game series by Kansas City to open a 10-game homestand.

Graveman (5-4) was the beneficiary of the big night from the bats, shutting down Nolan Arenado and the Rockies for his latest strong start since returning from the minors.

Reds 11, Twins 7

Billy Hamilton scored three times in the first three innings to help Cincinnati open a huge lead, and the Reds held on against Minnesota.

The Reds sent 10 batters to the plate for five runs and a 9-1 lead in the third inning, when Mike Pelfrey (5-5) failed to retire any of the four batters he faced. Pelfrey gave up eight runs — matching his season high — and nine hits, retiring only six of 17 batters.

Cincinnati's Mike Leake let most of the lead slip away. Ten Twins batted during a six-run rally in the top of the fourth inning. Brian Dozier's three-run homer off Leake cut it to 9-7.

Nate Adcock (1-1) got the victory with two scoreless innings in relief of Leake.