OAKLAND, Calif. - The Red Sox finally got to one of Oakland's aces.
Manny Ramirez and Kevin Millar homered and drove in three each as Boston again pulled even with the Athletics in the wild-card race, beating Mark Mulder and Oakland 7-3 Wednesday night.
Bill Mueller had a run-scoring single among his three hits as the Red Sox won for the second time in seven games. After losing the first two games of the series, Boston matched Oakland's 69-51 record atop the wild-card standings with an overdue outburst from its prolific offense.
Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and the A's bullpen shut down the Sox in the previous two games, but Boston canceled Mulder's plans for his 16th victory with a bevy of singles in the third followed by Ramirez's two-run homer, his 28th of the season, in the seventh.
The expected pitchers' duel between Mulder and Derek Lowe didn't exactly materialize. Lowe struggled through five, allowing five hits and two walks, but stayed in long enough to get his first win in four starts.
Mulder lost consecutive starts for the second time this season, yielding nine hits, three walks and five earned runs in 61/3 shaky innings.
Jose Guillen homered for the A's, who lost for the third time in their past 14 home games.
Four Boston relievers pitched one inning apiece.
Millar, who had a two-run single in the third to give Boston its first lead, followed Ramirez's seventh-inning blast with a homer off reliever Chad Harville. It was Millar's 20th of the season, matching his career high set with Florida in 2001.
ROYALS 11, YANKEES 0: Ten years seemed to melt away right before Kevin Appier's eyes.
It was 1993 again. He was the young ace of the Kansas City staff on his way to winning 18. Kauffman Stadium was full. The Royals were in a pennant race and quite handily beating the Yankees.
He's not young anymore, and this is 2003. But the rest was the same Wednesday night. Appier reintroduced himself to Kansas City by pitching six shutout innings as the Royals earned their first home series win against the Yankees in 10 years.
"It's pretty awesome," said Appier, the longtime Royals pitcher who was traded in 1999.
"Every win is huge, but coming back here and being able to help these guys in a pennant race; it feels really good. It feels tremendous."
INDIANS 5, TWINS 0 (14): Ryan Ludwick hit a run-scoring single and visiting Cleveland scored four more in the 14th without hitting the ball out of the infield.
It was the majors' longest scoreless game since the Cubs beat the Astros 1-0 in 16 on May 31 at Wrigley Field.
Though most of the announced crowd of 30,082 were gone at game's end, the Twins fell to 0-8 at home this season when playing in front of 30,000 or more. They dropped 31/2 games behind Kansas City in the Central.
ANGELS 2, WHITE SOX 1: Tim Salmon hit a tiebreaking double in the eighth and Jarrod Washburn outpitched Mark Buehrle for host Anaheim.
Buehrle gave up hits to all three batters he faced in the eighth. Singles by Alfredo Amezaga and Garret Anderson put runners at the corners and Salmon lined the left-hander's 98th pitch to the wall in right-center.
The Angels turned an unusual double play in the eighth after third baseman Scott Spiezio fielded Tony Graffanino's sacrifice up the third-base line. Second baseman Adam Kennedy took the throw at first, barely keeping his foot on the bag on Spiezio's wide throw, then threw to third, where shortstop Amezaga tagged out Jose Valentin.
RANGERS 7, TIGERS 3: Rafael Palmeiro hit a three-run homer and Alex Rodriguez a two-run shot for host Texas. Palmeiro's 29th homer in the second gave the Rangers a 6-1 lead. Rodriguez's 32nd put Texas ahead 2-0 in the first.
