ST. LOUIS: St. Louis’ Jaime Garcia pitched seven scoreless innings to guide the Cardinals to a 4-1 win against Pittsburgh on Saturday, moving a step closer to sealing the National League Central division.

The Cardinals stretched their lead over the Pirates to 6-1/2 games with 27 and 28 games respectively to play.

In the American League, top-ranked Kansas City was beaten at home by the Chicago White Sox, AL West leader Houston had its lead trimmed to a precarious two games after giving up a late winner against Minnesota, and Toronto bolstered its thin lead of the AL East by defeating Baltimore.

St. Louis’ Garcia (8-4) struck out a season-high nine and walked just one for his 50th career win.

Matt Carpenter hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning that put the Cardinals ahead 4-0.

Chicago’s Jose Quintana ended his personal run of losses against Kansas City by pitching seven scoreless innings to steer the White Sox to a 6-1 win.

Quintana (8-10) defeated the Royals for the first time in 17 career starts after losing his first six decisions. Quintana yielded five doubles but walked none.

Chicago’s Alexei Ramirez homered — his eighth hit in nine at-bats — in the fourth inning with two runners aboard.

Minnesota’s Eddie Rosario hit a tiebreaking two-run triple in the ninth inning to give the Twins a 3-2 win at Houston.

With the score tied 1-1 to open the ninth, Brian Dozier singled off Houston closer Luke Gregerson (7-3) and moved to second on Joe Mauer’s grounder. Trevor Plouffe was hit by a pitch with two outs, and Rosario followed with his hit to right field that a diving George Springer got a glove on but couldn’t hold.

Toronto’s David Price earned his 100th career victory as he guided the Blue Jays past Baltimore 5-1.

Price (14-5) allowed one run in seven innings. He’s 5-1 with a 2.15 ERA since joining Toronto.

Jose Bautista hit his 32nd homer of the season with a solo shot in the first and made it 2-0 with an RBI double in the third.

That win pushed the Blue Jays 1-1/2 games ahead of the New York Yankees, who lost 3-2 at home against Tampa Bay.

New York’s Didi Gregorius lined out with the bases loaded to end the eighth inning and whipped his bat toward the dugout, a telling sign of frustration for the Yankees during a costly loss.

Asdrubal Cabrera hit a two-run single and Kevin Kiermaier had an RBI single for the Rays.

Chicago’s Jake Arrieta pitched eight scoreless innings for his major league-best 18th win of the season, guiding the Cubs past Arizona 2-0.

Arrieta (18-6) struck out seven in his first start since he threw his first career no-hitter last Sunday. It was his seventh consecutive victory, and he has allowed just two earned runs in 50 1/3 innings during his win streak.

Los Angeles’ Alex Wood putted in a similarly strong performance, pitching seven scoreless innings in the Dodgers’ 2-0 win against San Diego.

Texas’ Derek Holland allowed three hits over eight innings to steer the Rangers past the Los Angeles Angels 2-1.

Holland (3-1) struck out five and yielded just one hit through his last 6 1/3 innings in his fifth start of the season. He spent most of the season out with a shoulder strain.

Rougned Odor hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the eighth for Texas after one-out singles by Mitch Moreland and Elvis Andrus.

New York’s 42-year-old Bartolo Colon became the oldest Mets pitcher to throw a shutout, leading the team past Miami 7-0.

Detroit’s Alfredo Simon pitched seven strong innings as the Tigers ended a run of seven losses in eight games and defeated Cleveland 6-0.

San Francisco snapped out of seven-game losing slump by winning 7-4 at Colorado, with Jake Peavy hitting two doubles and pitching into the sixth inning.

Washington’s Bryce Harper had three hits, including his 33rd home run of the season, to power the Nationals past Atlanta 8-2 and to a fourth straight win.

Seattle’s Felix Hernandez pitched eight strong innings to steer the Mariners to a fourth successive win, beating Oakland 8-3.

Boston’s David Ortiz hit his 496th career home run, reaching 30 in a season for a team-record ninth time, as the Red Sox beat Philadelphia 9-2.

Milwaukee won both games of a double-header at Cincinnati, taking the opener 8-6 and the night game 7-3 to extend the Brewers’ winning run to six games.