American League

Rays 4, Blue Jays 3

Luke Scott and Kelly Johnson hit back-to-back home runs, Evan Longoria also went deep and the Rays survived a late scare to beat the Blue Jays on Sunday, completing a three-game sweep.

The surging Rays have won 13 of their past 14 games and 20 of their past 24. After starting the season 14-18, Tampa Bay is a major league-best 44-23 since May 8.

Rays right-hander Chris Archer pitched seven innings to win his fourth straight decision, improving to 4-0 with an 1.62 ERA in his past six starts, including his first career shutout against Houston on July 14.

Archer (5-3) allowed five hits, walked four and struck out one.

R.A. Dickey (8-11) allowed four runs and seven hits in six innings, walked one and struck out eight. He gave up three home runs for the third time this season.

Orioles 4, Rangers 2

Chris Tillman pitched into the ninth inning in his return from the All-Star game, and Baltimore beat Texas to sweep a three-game series between 2012 playoff teams.

Matt Wieters had two hits and scored twice to help the Orioles (56-43) move a season-high 13 games over .500 with their seventh victory in eight games. They sure seem comfortable in Texas, where Baltimore won last year's AL wild-card game.

Tillman (12-3) gave up two runs and six hits while striking out seven, making Baltimore starters 7-1 in the last eight games. The 25-year-old righty was three outs from his first career complete game when Adrian Beltre chased him with a leadoff homer in the ninth.

Darren O'Day got two outs to earn his second save.

Martin Perez (3-3) pitched 6 1-3 innings for the Rangers, giving up four runs and nine hits. He didn't get much help from his defense.

Texas has dropped four straight and seven of eight.

Athletics 6, Dodgers 0

Bartolo Colon pitched a four-hitter for his third shutout this season and center fielder Chris Young robbed Albert Pujols of a home run to help Oakland beat Los Angeles.

Eric Sogard hit a two-run homer to back Colon (13-3), who struck out five and walked one. The 40-year-old right-hander, making his first start since returning from his third All-Star game, tied Max Scherzer and Adam Wainwright for the major league lead in wins while reducing his ERA to 2.52. Colon is 10-1 with a 1.46 ERA over his last 12 outings.

The 116-pitch complete game was Colon's 35th in 395 big league starts, and the shutout was the 12th of his career. Young preserved Oakland's ninth shutout of the year when he pulled back Pujols' bid for his 492nd homer leading off the seventh.

Tigers 4, Royals 1

Miguel Cabrera and Andy Dirks homered as the Tigers beat the Royals to avoid being swept.

Doug Fister (8-5) picked up the victory with six strong innings, yielding a run, while allowing six hits and striking out five and walking one.

Cabrera, who is second in the league with 31 home runs to Chris Davis of the Baltimore Orioles, drove a 1-1 pitch out to left in the first inning.

Miguel Tejada tied it in the second with his third home run of the season and the 307th of his career. Tejada took an 0-1 Fister pitch out to left.

Dirks broke the tie with a home run with one out in the fifth to straightaway center, just eluding Jarrod Dyson's leap at the wall.

James Shields (4-7), who has won only one of 10 home starts, took the loss.

Indians 7, Twins 1

Justin Masterson took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning, Michael Brantley hit a bases-loaded triple and the Indians beat the Twins to avoid a three-game sweep.

Masterson (11-7) had faced the minimum through six, allowing only a hit batter, when Brian Dozier led off the seventh with a broken-bat blooper to center field that dunked in under the glove of a sliding Drew Stubbs for a double.

The Indians led 3-0 on Mike Aviles' sacrifice fly and two-run homer by Jason Kipnis when they loaded the bases with one out in the fifth on a walk to Kipnis and consecutive singles by Nick Swisher and Carlos Santana off starter Scott Diamond (5-9).

Mariners 12, Astros 5

Nick Franklin hit his first career grand slam in Seattle's big second inning to back up a scoreless start by Felix Hernandez, and the Mariners rolled past the Astros for their season-best sixth straight victory.

Franklin's slam, Seattle's fifth this season, came off Jordan Lyles (4-4) in a seven-run second.

Hernandez (11-4) scattered four hits with seven strikeouts over six innings to lower his AL-leading ERA to 2.43. He is 6-0 in his last 10 starts and hasn't lost since May 25.

Brad Miller, Dustin Ackley and Michael Saunders drove in two runs each to help the Mariners wrap up a three-game sweep.

Lyles yielded eight hits and 10 runs, with a career-high nine earned, in four-plus innings to lose his third straight decision.

National League

Dodgers 9, Nationals 2

Matt Kemp returned to the lineup with a home run and a double in the same inning, and Los Angeles completed a sweep of Washington that kept it a half-game behind first-place Arizona in the NL West.

Activated from the 15-day disabled list before the game, Kemp led off the second with a homer and then doubled home Andre Ethier in a seven-run inning against Jordan Zimmermann (12-5), quickly turning a much-anticipated matchup of All-Star aces into a rout.

Clayton Kershaw (9-6) allowed only two hits — solo homers by Jayson Werth — over seven innings with nine strikeouts and no walks, putting his major league-best ERA at 2.01.

The Dodgers have won 20 of 25. This game marked the first time all season that Kemp, Hanley Ramirez and Carl Crawford were all in the lineup together. But it might be a few days before it happens again because Kemp hurt his left ankle sliding into home plate on a force play in the ninth.

Washington has dropped eight of 10.

Pirates 3, Reds 2

Jeff Locke allowed only an infield single through six innings and Pittsburgh beat Homer Bailey to salvage the final game of its series with Cincinnati.

The second-place Pirates left town with a three-game cushion over the NL Central-rival Reds, who won the first two games of the series.

Locke (9-2) and the majors' second-stingiest bullpen limited the Reds to three singles, but issued seven walks and let a run score on a wild pitch. Jason Grilli worked the ninth for his 30th save in 31 chances.

Locke had to miss his last scheduled start and couldn't pitch in the All-Star game because of a sore back. There were no problems when he got back on the mound.

Bailey (5-9) struck out a career-high 12 but remained winless since his no-hitter against San Francisco at Great American Ball Park on July 2. Garrett Jones hit his second homer in two games, and the Pirates added a pair of runs in the seventh.

Brewers 1, Marlins 0 (13)

Caleb Gindl hit his first career home run in the bottom of the 13th inning and Milwaukee shut out punchless Miami for the third consecutive game.

Miami has gone a club-record 37 innings without a run, the longest drought by a major league team in 28 years. The Houston Astros were held scoreless for 42 consecutive innings in July 1985, according to STATS.

The Marlins haven't scored since Derek Dietrich drove in two runs in the fourth inning of a 5-2 loss in 10 innings to Washington on July 14.

This one was the longest scoreless game in the majors since Boston won 1-0 in 16 innings at Tampa Bay on July 17, 2011.

The Brewers were the last team in the majors to produce a shutout this season, but now have eight in the team's past 31 games. The Marlins have been blanked 12 times.

John Axford (4-3) pitched two innings for the win and helped the Milwaukee pitching staff set a franchise record with 35 scoreless innings.

Gindl connected off Ryan Webb (1-4) after a pitching duel between Miami's Henderson Alvarez and Milwaukee's Wily Peralta.

Cardinals 3, Padres 2

Adam Wainwright worked eight sharp innings for his National League-leading 13th win and Allen Craig ended the game with a leaping catch at the left-field wall as St. Louis beat San Diego.

Craig has 12 hits and six RBIs during a seven-game hitting streak for the Cardinals, who took two of three in both series against the Padres this season. The St. Louis defense turned three double plays behind Wainwright (13-5), who allowed two runs with seven strikeouts and two walks.

Yonder Alonso singled three times with an RBI for the Padres. Eric Stults (8-8) allowed three runs and eight hits in six innings.

Craig's tough catch preserved Edward Mujica's 28th save in 30 chances and robbed pinch-hitter Jedd Gyorko of at least an extra-base hit that would have put the Padres.

The Cardinals, who have won nine of 12, own the best record in the majors. The Padres have lost 19 of 24.

Diamondbacks 3, Giants 1

Paul Goldschmidt hit a sacrifice fly and a double against All-Star Madison Bumgarner, Cody Ross added a late two-run single, and first-place Arizona held off a late rally by San Francisco to avoid a three-game sweep.

The Diamondbacks snapped a three-game skid with their first victory of the second half.

Randall Delgado (2-3) won in his first career start at AT&T Park, and Goldschmidt's first-inning sac fly got things going against the World Series champions. Arizona threw out Buster Posey at the plate in the sixth.

A day after stranding 13 and going 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position, the Diamondbacks did just enough against Bumgarner (10-6) in his first outing after the All-Star break.

Ross singled in the eighth as Arizona won for just the fourth time in 16 road games.

Brad Ziegler finished a crazy ninth that featured two errors for his fourth save. The Giants scored on second baseman Aaron Hill's wild throw past first.

Rockies 4, Cubs 3

Tyler Chatwood pitched six solid innings, Nolan Arenado hit a go-ahead single and Colorado beat Chicago to win the three-game series.

Chatwood (6-3) went the distance last time out but was a tough-luck loser to Zack Greinke and the Los Angeles Dodgers 1-0. This time, he allowed seven hits and two runs — one earned.

Rex Brothers allowed a run in the ninth before earning his fifth save.

Starlin Castro had four hits for the Cubs, matching a career high, and Anthony Rizzo homered.

Edwin Jackson (6-11) settled down after a rough start to go seven innings. His three-game winning streak was snapped.

Interleague

White Sox 3, Braves 1

Left fielder Casper Wells robbed Reed Johnson of a home run in the eighth inning to help the White Sox beat the Braves.

With the White Sox leading 3-1, Wells leaped up against the left-field wall to make a spectacular catch and rob Johnson of the game-tying homer. It was one of several great defensive plays by the White Sox.

Alex Rios added two hits and an RBI for Chicago and Jose Quintana scattered nine hits in 5 2-3 innings for the win.

up against the left-field wall to make a spectacular catch.

White Sox relievers Ramon Troncoso and Donnie Veal each retired the two batters they faced and Nate Jones pitched a scoreless eighth. Closer Addison Reed pitched scoreless ninth for his 25th save in 29 chances.

Braves starter Mike Minor (9-5) pitched his first career complete game in the loss.