Justin Verlander became the first 19-game winner in the majors, Alex Avila hit his 15th homer and the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-2 Monday night. Verlander (19-5) won his seventh consecutive start, giving up one run and three hits in seven innings. The 19 wins match his career high, set in 2009. The Tigers took a 2-1 lead in the second when Avila hit a two-run shot off Jeff Niemann (8-5). The All-Star catcher is 25 for 59 (.424) with five homers and 14 RBIs this month. Niemann, who was 7-0 in his 10 previous start, allowed four runs and six hits over 7 1-3 innings. Tampa Bay center fielder B.J. Upton left with a right shoulder strain after running into the wall on Delmon Young's eighth-inning double. Mariners 3, Indians 2: Franklin Gutierrez lifted a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the ninth inning and the Seattle Mariners scored the go-ahead run without getting a hit to beat the Cleveland Indians. The Indians, swept by AL Central-leading Detroit over the weekend, lost their fourth in a row. Seattle stopped its five-game losing skid and won for only the fourth time in its last 24 road games. Cleveland closer Chris Perez (2-6) hit both Miguel Olivo and Brendan Ryan with pitches to start the ninth. Perez compounded his problems by dropping a sacrifice bunt by Trayvon Robinson, loading the bases with no outs. Ichiro Suzuki, who led off the game with a home run, struck out. But Gutierrez, formerly of the Indians, hit a fly to medium center field and Olivo barely beat Ezequiel Carrera's one-hop throw home. Orioles 4, Twins 1: J.J. Hardy homered against the team that traded him in the offseason, Zach Britton won for the first time in 10 weeks and the Baltimore Orioles snapped a five-game losing streak by beating the Minnesota Twins 4-1. Rangers 4, Red Sox 0: Pitcher C.J. Wilson and the Texas Rangers took full advantage of an ailing Boston team in a breezy shutout victory over the Red Sox.
