Tigers 6, Royals 3: Miguel Cabrera homered and had three RBIs and Max Scherzer pitched eight strong innings to record his major league-leading 18th victory as Detroit defeated visiting Kansas City.

Cabrera’s 40th homer - a two run shot in the first inning - was the 361st of his career, tying him with Joe DiMaggio for 77th on the all-time list as the Tigers won three times in the five-game series. Torii Hunter, Brayan Pena and Ramon Santiago also drove in runs to help Detroit boost its lead in the American League Central to seven games over the Cleveland Indians.

Scherzer (18-1) allowed two runs and five hits and didn’t issue a walk while winning his fifth consecutive decision. Joaquin Benoit worked the ninth in a non-save situation.

Bruce Chen (5-1) was working on a string of six straight stellar starts but Cabrera started him toward his first defeat since losing to the Tigers last Oct. 1. Cabrera homered in the first inning and singled in a run in the third, Hunter hit a sacrifice fly in the fifth and Pena finished Chen’s afternoon with a booming RBI double to center in the sixth.

Santiago greeted reliever Louis Coleman with a run-scoring single to make it 6-0. Kansas City tallied twice in the seventh on an infield out by Salvador Perez and a double by Emilio Bonifacio. Billy Butler homered in the ninth against Benoit.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Tigers 2B Omar Infante (back, quadriceps) was held out of the lineup. … Chen was charged with six runs and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings. … Cabrera has five homers in 34 career at-bats against Chen.