KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Jarrod Washburn pitched five shutout innings, Garret Anderson scored twice and the streaking Los Angeles Angels completed a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals with a rain-shortened 5-0 victory Sunday night.

The game was called with none out in the top of the sixth after a rain delay of 1 hour, 46 minutes.

The Angels have won 13 of 16 and at 50-31 have the best record after 81 games in franchise history. The victory put them 71/2 games ahead of Texas in the AL West – another franchise best after 81.

They’ve been particularly tough on the hapless Royals (26-54), who are stuck with their worst record after 80 games. The Angels have beaten Kansas City nine straight times at Kauffman Stadium and have won 13 of the last 15 meetings overall. It was also their fourth sweep in the last five series against the Royals.

Washburn (5-3) gave up four hits in his sixth career complete game and first this season. His only other shutout was July 7 last year against the Chicago White Sox. The left-hander struck out three and walked one, improving to 6-2 lifetime against the Royals.

Zack Greinke (1-10) joined Seattle’s Ryan Franklin as the AL’s only 10-game losers. He was charged with five runs and 12 hits in five-plus innings. The right-hander, touted after his rookie season as the cornerstone of the Royals’ youth movement, has a 6.09 ERA after 17 starts this year.

The struggling Royals have won only twice in their last 15 games and scored in only one of the 23 innings they played in this three-game series. They had three runs in the eighth inning of a 5-3 loss to Bartolo Colon on Saturday night and were shut out on two hits by Paul Byrd on Friday.

Anderson, Adam Kennedy, Jeff DaVanon and Maicer Izturis each had two hits off Greinke, whose only victory this year was against the New York Yankees when he went five innings.

DaVanon and Izturis singled in the second, and DaVanon scored on a double-play grounder by Bengie Molina. Izturis had an RBI double in the fourth and scored on Molina’s single.

Back-to-back RBI doubles by Anderson and DaVanon made it 5-0 in the fifth. Chone Figgins was the only batter in Los Angeles’ lineup without a hit.

Royals second baseman Ruben Gotay made an error on Figgins’ grounder in the third, letting it glance off his glove into right field. But he immediately made up for it by turning an impressive double play on a much harder ball off the bat of Darin Erstad.

Notes: 1B Mike Sweeney was chosen as Royals’ lone All-Star representative. He’ll be going for the fifth time. … The Angels’ All-Stars are RHP Bartolo Colon and OFs Vladimir Guerrero and Anderson. … This was the Royals’ only Sunday night game of the season. … Since Guerrero’s return from the disabled list, the Angels are 16-6. … It was the Angels’ major league-leading ninth shutout.

AP-ES-07-03-05 2247EDT


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