DETROIT (AP) -Torii Hunter homered to back Ervin Santana, and the Angels beat the Tigers 7-1 Thursday to cut their magic number to six for clinching their fourth AL West title in five seasons.
Santana (15-5) struck out eight in 7 1-3 innings, allowing one run and six hits.
``He's as consistent as any pitcher I've seen,'' Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. ``He's approaching 30 starts, and he's throwing as well as he did in start five or six.''
Santana, who won his first six decisions this year, is 4-0 in seven starts since July 27.
``It's about working hard,'' he said. ``You just have to keep it up and keep throwing.''
Detroit (67-73), which hasn't been at .500 since Aug. 2, advanced just two runners past first base before Curtis Granderson's homer in the eighth.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Jose Guillen drove in three runs, Kyle Davies ended a four-game losing streak and the Royals swept a doubleheader from the Athletics.
The Royals jumped out to a 9-1 lead in the second game and finished with 15 hits.
Oakland scored three in the seventh and two in the ninth to cut it to 9-6 before Ramon Ramirez finished for his first career save.
Oakland had a chance in the first game and tried to rally from a big deficit in the second, but continued its free fall in the standings. The A's were four games behind AL West-leading Los Angeles on July 11 and have lost 35 of 47 since, dropping 22 1/2 games behind the Angels.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - Scott Kazmir allowed one hit in six scoreless innings, and Tampa Bay's bullpen weathered ninth-inning home runs by Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez to hang on for a victory over the Yankees.
Willy Aybar homered and drove in three runs for the AL East-leading Rays, who avoided a three-game sweep and extended their lead in the division over second-place Boston to 3 1/2 games.
The Red Sox, who face Tampa Bay six times over the next two weeks, were idle.
Kazmir (11-6) limited the Yankees to Cody Ransom's fifth inning double, walked five and struck out seven, but a high pitch-count (98) prevented him from going deeper into the game.
Chad Bradford worked a scoreless eighth but Tampa Bay lost its bid for its 13th shutout of the season in the ninth when Jason Hammel gave up RBI single to Ransom, who finished 3-for-3, and home runs to Jeter and Rodriguez.
TORONTO (AP) - Jesse Litsch threw a four-hit shutout and the Blue Jays completed a three-game sweep of Minnesota.
Litsch (10-8) walked two and struck out three and is 2-1 with a 0.94 ERA in four starts since being recalled from Triple-A on Aug. 14.
Travis Snider hit his first career home run and went 3-for-4 with two RBIs to help Toronto beat Minnesota for the ninth straight meeting. He also walked and scored twice while Joe Inglett and Alex Rios each drove in a pair as Toronto broke it open with a five-run eighth inning.
Twins right-hander Kevin Slowey (11-9) allowed three runs in 5 2-3 innings to lose for the first time in six starts. He walked none and struck out three.
