BOSTON - The Oakland Athletics took the lead in the wild-card race Tuesday night. Whether they can hold onto it may depend on how badly their top pitcher is hurt.
Mark Mulder left with a nagging hip injury after three innings, but Ramon Hernandez hit a three-run homer and the Oakland bullpen pitched six scoreless innings to lead the A's over the Red Sox 3-2.
"It's tough to see one of your horses go down," said A's pitcher Tim Hudson, also recovering from an injury. "But I'm excited to see our bullpen do the job for us. They did an unbelievable job."
Oakland took a one-game lead in the wild-card race despite getting three hits, two in the first six innings off Derek Lowe, who also left with an injury, a blister on his right thumb.
"I was disappointed that we had to make a move there that we were not anticipating," Red Sox manager Grady Little said. "I was looking at the guy going nine innings tonight with the stuff he had."
Lowe also left his June 8 start because of the blister, but he didn't miss a start then and he said he doesn't expect to now.
"You have to look down the line," he said. "You want to pitch every five days. That's the key."
Ricardo Rincon pitched 1 2/3 innings, walking one and striking out three. Keith Foulke got three outs for his 32nd save as the A's remained four behind Seattle in the West.
Boston lost for the eighth time in 12 games and dropped a season-high 6 1/2 games behind the Yankees in the East. Scott Williamson took the loss after giving up Hernandez's homer.
Mulder is 15-9 with a 3.13 ERA, among the league leaders in both categories and the top winner on a staff that includes Cy Young winner Barry Zito. He leads the majors with nine complete games.
WHITE SOX 5, ANGELS 2: Carlos Lee keyed a four-run seventh with a bases-loaded single as host Chicago moved within one of first-place Kansas City in the Central.
Adam Riggs and Alfredo Amezaga hit their first major-league homers for Anaheim, but Amezaga's throwing error and back-to-back bunt singles helped Chicago break a tie at 1 in the seventh.
Tony Graffanino reached when Amezaga threw wide to first on his grounder. Miguel Olivo and Roberto Alomar beat out bunt singles to load the bases, and Lee followed with a shot past third.
Lee moved to second when Alomar was thrown out at third and scored when Frank Thomas singled to center, finishing Scott Shields. Carl Everett followed with a run-scoring double off Ben Weber.
YANKEES 6, ROYALS 3: Karim Garcia homered for the third straight game and New York overcame a sloppy seventh inning.
Alfonso Soriano and Bernie Williams also homered as the Yankees won their sixth in a row and seventh in their past eight games to move a season-high 30 games over .500.
Andy Pettitte took a shutout into the seventh but was undone by three errors, two by Soriano. He still won for the 10th time in his past 11 decisions.
TWINS 8, INDIANS 2: Johan Santana stayed hot in August with eight strong innings and Matt LeCroy hit a three-run homer, leading visiting Minnesota.
Santana struck out a season-high 10 and allowed eight hits. The left-hander is 3-0 this month and has given up four earned runs in his past 30 innings.
LeCroy homered in the sixth off Jason Davis. Dustan Mohr added a two-run homer in the eighth for Minnesota, 4-8 against Cleveland this season.
MARINERS 9, BLUE JAYS 1: Edgar Martinez continued his torrid hitting against Kelvim Escobar, hitting a three-run homer and driving in four for visiting Seattle. Martinez went 2-for-3 off Escobar, raising his career average against him to .520 (13-for-25).
RANGERS 5, TIGERS 4: Alex Rodriguez hit a three-run homer and tripled as visiting Texas won its seventh straight. Detroit has lost seven straight.
