(MENAFN- Arab News) SAN FRANCISCO: Oakland remained on pace for its best season and took bragging rights over Bay Area rival San Francisco by beating the Giants 6-1 thanks chiefly to All-Star pitcher Scott Kazmir striking out nine batters over seven scoreless innings on Thursday.

The Major League Baseball-leading Athletics took three out of four in the grudge series while another clash of local rivals was played out in Baltimore where the Orioles edged neighbor Washington to claim that series 2-1.

As well as those geographic rivalries there were a couple of important intra-division fights with American League Central leader Detroit routing second-place Kansas City 16-4 while Pittsburgh tightened the National League Central fight with a 9-1 win at St. Louis.

Oakland starter Kazmir (11-3) has yielded one run or none in 11 of 19 starts this season for a 2.38 ERA.

Josh Donaldson hit a two-run homer and Stephen Vogt drove in three runs for the A's who matched the franchise record for the best win-loss ratio after 92 games at 58-34.

The floundering Giants have lost 15 of their past 19 home games.

Baltimore's Steve Pearce homered and scored twice as the Orioles edged Washington 4-3.

Wei-Yin Chen earned his team-high ninth victory and Baltimore beat Washington for its eighth win in 10 games.

Adam Jones and Nelson Cruz both drove in a run for the Orioles who built a 4-0 lead in the third inning and held on.

Chen (9-3) gave up three runs in 5 2-3 innings improving to 6-1 in 12 starts since May 3. He was 0-2 with a 7.71 ERA in his previous two starts against the Nationals.

Detroit demolished Kansas City 16-4 with every batter in the lineup having at least one hit and scoring one run.

The Tigers established a season-high for runs just two days after scoring 14 against the Los Angeles Dodgers and took a 5 1/2-game lead over the second-place Royals in the AL Central.

Royals' starter Jeremy Guthrie (5-8) gave up a career-worst eight earned runs after completing only four innings.

Pittsburgh's Edinson Volquez pitched a complete game to win his fourth straight start steering the Pirates to a 9-1 win at St. Louis.

Volquez (8-6) has a 0.90 ERA in winning four consecutive starts for the first time in his career.

Neil Walker Josh Harrison Russell Martin and Andrew McCutchen all drove in two runs for the Pirates who avoided being swept in the four-game series.

The Cardinals played without All-Star catcher Yadier Molina who tore a ligament in his right thumb on Wednesday and is expected to miss 8 to 12 weeks.

Philadelphia completed a four-game road sweep at Milwaukee piling on all their runs late to beat the NL Central-leading Brewers 9-1 Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw had his run of scoreless innings ended at 41 but still put in another strong performance that guided the hosts to a 2-1 win over San Diego.

The Angels piled on the runs to win 15-6 at Texas Atlanta avoided a four-game sweep at New York beating the Mets 3-1 and Cleveland's Roberto Perez hit a two-run homer in his MLB debut and Carlos Santana also connected as the Indians scored nine runs in the final two innings to beat the New York Yankees 9-3.

Chicago's Luis Valbuena hit a tiebreaking two-run triple in the 12th inning to give the Cubs a 6-4 win at Cincinnati dodging a rare five-game series sweep Boston's Mike Carp connect for a single in the 10th inning to give the Red Sox a 4-3 win over the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota beat Seattle 4-2.