Miner, Cabrera power Tigers past Royals

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Zach Miner was more impressed with Miguel Cabrera's home run than his own dominating start.

Miner pitched three-hit ball for seven innings, Cabrera hit his third homer in two games to reach 100 RBIs and the Tigers handed the Kansas City Royals their seventh straight loss, 4-0 Saturday night.

"You look up and he is hitting almost .300 (.292) and he's got almost 30 home runs and 100 RBIs. He's definitely as advertised as a hitter," Miner said. "He's a great hitter that hits the ball to all fields with an incredible amount of power. Pretty much, they are getting what they paid for. He's an awesome player."

Magglio Ordonez, Edgar Renteria and Matt Joyce each had a sacrifice fly for Detroit.

"That's a textbook baseball game," Leyland said. "We got good pitching, a long ball, we manufactured runs and we caught the ball. That's how you draw it up. That is baseball at its best, a nice clean game for us."

The Royals have their third losing streak of at least seven games this season. They have been outscored 78-29 in losing 10 of 11 and falling a season worst 19-games below .500.

Miner, who was making his seventh start since being recalled July 21 from Triple-A Toledo, did not allow a hit after Mark Teahen singled leading off the third. He retired 12 of the final 13 batters he faced, walking Alberto Callaspo with two outs in the sixth. Miner, who gave up five runs in 1 1/3 innings against Baltimore in his previous start, has not allowed a run in five outings at Kauffman Stadium, a span of 18 1/3 innings.

"I tried to go about my business the same as I had," Miner said. "It worked the first few times, the last time it didn't. I had just hoped this time it would work. I felt a little stronger today, so I was able to get away with some mistakes a little more."

Miner (7-4) is 4-1 since moving to the rotation after starting the season with 32 relief appearances. He called this his best game of the season.

"I worked deep into the game, which is always a goal of a starting pitcher," Miner said. "I don't think I was as sharp as I had been in some other ones, but I felt my stuff was good and I felt strong."

Relievers Bobby Seay and Jeff Farnsworth completed the Tigers' second shutout of the season. It was the third time in 11 games the Royals have been blanked. The Royals had only one runner reach second base and did not have a hit after the third inning.

"We had consistently poor approaches at the plate," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "I don't think it was as much as a dominating pitching performance as it was a combination of us being overanxious and not picking quality pitches to swing at. I think we should have performed better."

Cabrera led off the sixth with a mammoth home run, his 28th, to left, giving him 100 RBIs. It is the fifth straight year he has driven in at least 100 runs.

"Every year I drive in 100 and that makes me feel pretty good," Cabrera said. "I did the same thing this year as I did with Florida. One hundred RBIs every year makes you consistent, those are good numbers."

Cabrera has 12 home runs and 43 RBIs in 35 games after the All-Star break.

Gary Sheffield led off the third with a double, moved to third on a groundout and scored on Renteria's fly to left. Carlos Guillen walked to lead off the fourth, advanced to second on a wild pitch, went to third on a balk and scored on Joyce's fly to right.

Curtis Granderson led off the fifth with his third walk, took third on Placido Polanco's single and came home on Ordonez's fly ball to right.

Kyle Davies (5-5) was recalled Friday from Triple-A Omaha. He gave up four runs on four hits and four walks and struck out four.

"Davies was more efficient, but I would like to see more command," Hillman said. "Overall, six out of nine innings, the leadoff hitter was on, five of six when Kyle was in the game. It's lucky he didn't run into more damage than he did."

Two of the four batters Davies walked ended up scoring.

"Starting pitching is getting the first guy out," Davies said. "To start an inning, you have to get them out or they are going to score some runs. From the windup, I couldn't get my fastball to come in. When I got to the stretch, everything felt great."

Game notes
The Tigers have won five straight at Kansas City, outscoring the Royals 41-9 in that stretch. They are 21-6 at Kauffman Stadium beginning with the 2006 season. ... Polanco had three of the nine Tigers' hits for his 42nd multihit game, raising his average to .313. ... The Royals have been outhomered 24-2 in their past 11 games.