DETROIT — The Los Angeles Angels showed the Detroit Tigers what playoff teams look like.

Torii Hunter homered to back Ervin Santana, and the Angels beat the Tigers, 7-1, yesterday 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 advanced just two runners past first base before Curtis Granderson's homer in the eighth.

Mark Teixeira and Juan Rivera each drove in a pair of runs for the Angels, who broke open the game with a four-run third inning off Kenny Rogers (9-13).

Rogers was removed after he gave up four straight singles starting the third inning. The 43-year-old left-hander allowed six runs and eight hits in two innings, and has lost three straight starts.

"I'm not tired. I feel fine," he said. "I had no reason for failing. I went out there and didn't get it done."

Rays 7, Yankees 5: Scott Kazmir (11-6) allowed one hit in six scoreless innings, and host Tampa Bay's bullpen weathered ninth-inning home runs by Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez to hang on for a victory over New York.

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.

Royals sweep Athletics: Jose Guillen drove in three runs, helping host Kansas City beat Oakland, 9-6, to complete a doubleheader sweep. 'Iolani alum Kila Ka'aihue made his major league debut as a pinch runner.

Joey Gathright's run-scoring single scored Esteban German from second base with one out in the 10th as Kansas City won the first game, 5-4. The Royals also finished off a sweep of the three-game series between two of the AL's worst teams.

Blue Jays 9, Twins 0: Jesse Litsch (10-8) threw a four-hit shutout and Travis Snider hit his first career home run and went 3 for 4 with two RBIs, helping host Toronto complete a three-game sweep of Minnesota.

Litsch 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.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

REDS 8, PIRATES 6: Joey Votto hit a solo homer and a bases-loaded single to break a 6-all tie in the eight, and Edwin Encarnacion followed with a sacrifice fly as host Cincinnati rallied from a five-run deficit to beat Pittsburgh.

By scoring three times in the eighth, the Reds avoided a sweep by the Pirates, who have dropped 11 of their last 13 games.

Braves 2, Nationals 0: James Parr (1-0) gave up two hits over six innings in his major league debut, Jeff Bennett worked the seventh, Julian Tavarez the eighth and Mike Gonzalez got three outs to complete the five-hitter for host Atlanta.

Shairon Martis (0-1) also pitched well for Washington in his major league debut, allowing two runs — on a sacrifice fly and fielder's choice groundout — and four hits in five innings.

Padres 5, Brewers 2: Will Venable hit his first career homer, Nick Hundley and Luis Rodriguez each drove in two runs and San Diego ended its nine-game road losing streak by handing Milwaukee its fourth straight loss.

The Brewers' wild-card lead was trimmed to four games over Philadelphia, and they fell five games behind NL Central-leading Chicago with 22 games left.

NOTES

Cubs: Chicago ace Carlos Zambrano has right rotator cuff tendinitis and inflammation, an MRI confirmed yesterday, a potential obstacle to the Cubs' chances of winning the World Series for the first time in a century.

Zambrano received a shot of anti-inflammatory medication and hopes to return to the rotation next week.

OBITUARY

Todd Cruz, an infielder with the 1983 world champion Baltimore Orioles, has died. He was 52. Cruz died Tuesday while swimming at the apartment complex in which he lived in Bullhead City, Ariz. The cause of death is pending results of an autopsy conducted by the Mohave County Medical Examiner's Office.