Tigers get swept, still 3 games behind Sox

Jeremy Guthrie pitched effectively into the eighth inning and Alex Gordon homered to lead the host Kansas City Royals over the Detroit Tigers 2-1 Thursday night for a three-game sweep.

Prince Fielder had three hits for the slumping Tigers, who remained three games behind the first-place White Sox in the AL Central.

Guthrie (3-3), who did not give up a hit to the Sox until the eighth inning on Aug. 19 in his previous Kauffman Stadium start, held Detroit to one run and scattered 10 hits — nine of them singles.

2-3 starts left for Strasburg

Stephen Strasburg probably has two or three starts left before he’s done for the season, and he no longer can claim he wasn’t told the shutdown was coming.

Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson said he spoke to Strasburg about the right-hander’s innings limit Wednesday night on the flight home from a series against the Miami Marlins.

“I said something to him on the plane, you know: ‘You’ve got a few more to go,’ ’’ Johnson said before Thursday night’s 8-1 victory against the visiting St. Louis Cardinals.

A’s win sixth in a row

Jarrod Parker pitched into the sixth inning and the visiting Oakland Athletics hit four home runs in a 12-7 vic- tory, their sixth in a row, to sweep the Cleveland Indians in a four-game series.

Oakland, which has won eight of nine, maintained its one-game lead over the Baltimore Orioles for the top spot in the AL wild-card race. George Kottaras’ three-run double broke a 1-1 tie in the fourth, and Coco Crisp, Cliff Pennington, Josh Reddick and Josh Donaldson homered.

Rollins benched in win

Philadelphia’s Jimmy Rollins was benched after two baserunning blunders in the host Phillies’ 3-2 win over the New York Mets.

Rollins was pulled for the start of the seventh inning af- ter two mistakes in the sixth.

He failed to run hard on a dropped pop-up that could have put him on second base. He stole second base, then was caught in a rundown on a grounder and was tagged out.

Jays keep Rays skiding

Carlos Villanueva pitched six sharp innings and the host Toronto Blue Jays beat the slumping Tampa Bay Rays 2-0, snapping a fivegame losing streak against the Rays. Kelly Johnson drove in both runs.

Tampa Bay lost for the fifth time in six games and dropped 11⁄2 games behind Baltimore for the second AL wild-card berth.