WASHINGTON — Max Scherzer sustained a dominant stretch with seven strong innings, Kurt Suzuki homered and the Washington Nationals beat the Kansas City Royals 6-0 on Saturday.

The NL pitcher of the month for June, Scherzer (9-5) allowed four hits and struck out 11 with one walk in his final start before heading to Tuesday’s All-Star Game. He struck out the side in the seventh.

Scherzer has won seven straight starts and has an 0.84 ERA over his last nine appearances. He returned from the paternity list following the birth of his daughter Thursday to help Washington win for the ninth time in 11 games.

Both teams wore throwback uniforms in celebration of their franchise’s 50 years since joining Major League Baseball in 1969, with the Nationals wearing the powder blue uniforms of the Montreal Expos.

Kansas City starter Glenn Sparkman (2-5) gave up four runs and nine hits in six innings.

Alex Gordon had two hits and a walk for the Royals, who have lost eight of 10.

INDIANS 7, REDS 2: Francisco Lindor homered twice, Roberto Perez connected on a tiebreaking shot in the eighth inning, and Cleveland pulled away to its fifth straight victory at Great American Ball Park.

The Indians have won nine of their last 11 games in Cincinnati and lead the intrastate series 62-50. They’ve taken two of three this season.

Cleveland has won five in a row overall, matching its longest winning streak of the season.

Shane Bieber (8-3) gave one of his best performances a day after he learned he’d made the All-Star Game in Cleveland next week, replacing Texas’ Mike Minor. He allowed four hits in eight innings.

CUBS 6, WHITE SOX 3: Jon Lester pitched into the seventh inning, and the visiting Cubs won at Chicago.

Lester (8-6) went 61/3 innings, allowing three runs, one earned, and six hits. He improved to 5-2 in his past seven starts. Lucas Giolito of the White Sox was removed in a five-run fifth.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

RAYS 4, YANKEES 3: Travis d’Arnaud hit a two-out homer off Chad Green in the bottom of the ninth inning, lifting Tampa Bay past New York in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Aaron Hicks had tied it at 3 in the top of the ninth for the Yankees, homering on a 2-2, two-out pitch from Colin Poche (2-1).

D’Arnaud’s winning homer against Green (2-3) into the right-field seats got the Rays back within 71/2 games of the AL East-leading Yankees, who had won the first two games of a four-game series in extra innings. Tampa Bay is 3-9 against New York this season.

It was just New York’s third loss in its last 19 games.

Nate Lowe hit a go-ahead two-run homer off CC Sabathia in the seventh that gave Tampa Bay a 3-2 lead. He hit his first big league homer Friday night off Masahiro Tanaka.

TWINS 7, RANGERS 4: Michael Pineda struck out a season-high nine over six efficient innings, Jason Castro had two hits and three RBI, and Minnesota won at home.

Pineda (6-4) gave up five hits and a run on a solo homer in the sixth inning by Elvis Andrus. The big right-hander had his most strikeouts since 2017 with the New York Yankees prior to a Tommy John surgery that sidelined him for all of 2018.

Marwin Gonzalez homered for Minnesota, which lead the majors with 166 home runs this year and matched its total from last season. Gonzalez is the 10th Twins player to reach double digits in homers, one shy of a club record set in 2016.

Taylor Rogers picked up his 12th save with 2 1/3 scoreless innings and five strikeouts.

Jesse Chavez (3-4) surrendered five runs – four earned – on five hits and two walks over five innings for Texas.

Minnesota signed Pineda to a two-year contract in free agency last year, knowing the first year of the deal would mostly be spent in rehab. He was pitching in rehab games last season before being shut down with a knee injury.

ORIOLES 8, BLUE JAYS 1: Andrew Cashner pitched seven strong innings to win his third straight start, Renato Nunez hit a two-run home run and Baltimore won in Toronto.

Stevie Wilkerson hit a solo home run and Jonathan Villar scored three times. The Orioles used a five-run fourth inning to win their third straight, improving to 4-1 north of the border this season.

Cashner (9-3) allowed three hits and one run, walked none and struck out four. He’s 2-0 with a 0.69 ERA in two starts against Toronto this season, having pitched six shutout innings to beat the Blue Jays on April 2.

Cashner got July off to a winning start after going 2-1 with a 1.44 ERA over 25 innings in four June starts. He has won five of six decisions dating to May 25.

Jimmy Yacabonis struck out the side on 13 pitches in the eighth and Shawn Armstrong finished for Baltimore.

Cashner gave Orioles center fielder Keon Broxton a tip of his cap after Broxton made a leaping catch at the wall to retire Freddy Galvis for the first out of the fourth.

ASTROS 4, ANGELS 0: Yuli Gurriel homered for the fourth straight game and Gerrit Cole pitched seven scoreless innings before two relievers completed the four-hitter, leading Houston at home.

Gurriel’s solo shot extended Houston’s lead to 3-0 in the sixth and gave him a 10-game hitting streak, and the longest stretch of consecutive games with home runs in his career.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

MARLINS 5, BRAVES 4: Yadiel Rivera hit a go-ahead, two-run single in the fifth inning and Miami won in Atlanta for only its second win over the Braves this season.

The Braves had been 9-1 against Miami before the Marlins snapped a five-game losing streak. The Marlins’ struggling offense, shut out in a 1-0 loss to Atlanta in the series opener, had 15 hits, including homers by Harold Ramirez and Starlin Castro.

Rivera was hitting .125 with one RBI before his line-drive single to left field drove in Garrett Cooper and Castro.

Caleb Smith (4-4) allowed four runs, three earned, in six innings in his first start since June 6.

NOTES

INDIANS: Pitcher Carlos Carrasco is being treated for leukemia, and he says it’s going to make him stronger than he was before.

Carrasco hasn’t played for Cleveland since May 30. The 32-year-old right-hander says he got a blood test after a spring-training physical prompted some concern, and he was diagnosed with leukemia in May.

“I never thought that I would have something like this, because I play baseball, I’m like super healthy or something like that,” Carrasco said in a video posted on the Indians’ Twitter account. “But you never know what’s going on inside your body.

“When I found out, it made me even stronger, then I push myself to work through this. Then I have a lot of people behind me, helping me, especially my teammates and family.”

RANGERS: All-Star Mike Minor will skip his final start Sunday against Minnesota ahead of the break.

Minor, a first-time All-Star, already had been replaced on the American League roster by Cleveland’s Shane Bieber because Minor was slated to start Sunday. Minor will attend the game but not pitch, and the team wanted to give the left-hander more rest before the start of the second half.

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