Verlander wins his 24th

Justin Verlander won his 12th straight start, pitching three-hit ball over eight innings to become the first pitcher in nine years to reach 24 wins as the AL Central champion Detroit Tigers beat the host Oakland Athletics, 3-0, Sunday. Verlander (24-5) struck out six and walked three, extending his scoreless streak to 17 innings.

With another victory, he would become the winningest pitcher in a season since Oakland's Bob Welch went 27-6 in 1990.

But the main thing for the Tigers now with nine games remaining is to get homefield advantage for the first round of the playoffs. Detroit (89-64) is one game ahead of Texas (88-65) for the No. 2 seed.

"I want the home crowd behind me," Verlander said. "I know it will be loud since they haven't seen it since 2006. It would be nice to play in front of them."

Angels 11, Orioles 2: Erick Aybar went 4-for-4, homered twice and scored five runs for Los Angeles to avert a three-game sweep in Baltimore. The Angels remain 41/2 games in back of division-leading Texas but picked up a game in the wild-card hunt and are four games behind Boston.

Rangers 3, Mariners 0: Adrian Beltre hit a two-run homer, his 27th, to propel visiting Texas. Matt Harrison (13-9) struck out a career-high nine in 62/3 shutout innings. Texas remains 41/2 games ahead of the Angels in the AL West.

Cardinals 5, Phillies 0: Allen Craig hit two homers, Albert Pujols hit his 36th and Chris Carpenter (10-9) went eight innings for visiting St. Louis, which pulled within 31/2 games of the Braves in the NL wild-card chase with their ninth win in 11 games.

D-backs 5, Padres 1: Joe Saunders took a five-hitter into the ninth inning and Paul Goldschmidt drove in three runs for visiting Arizona. The Diamondbacks cut the magic number to five for their first NL West title since 2007.

Giants 12, Rockies 5: Pablo Sandoval homered twice in an eight-run fourth inning, part of a six-home run barrage that led visiting San Francisco to its eighth straight win. The Giants are four games behind Atlanta for the NL wild card.

Brewers 8, Reds 1: Prince Fielder and Carlos Gomez each hit two-run homers in the first and Zack Greinke pitched seven sharp innings, leading Milwaukee to a series sweep in Cincinnati. Any combination of Milwaukee wins and St. Louis losses totaling four will give the Brewers the NL Central title, their first division title since 1982. -- AP