Mulder Is Hurt, A’s Get Wild-Card Lead

The Oakland Athletics took the lead in the American League wild-card race on Tuesday night. Whether they can hold on to it may depend on how badly their top pitcher is hurt.

Mark Mulder left because of 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 Boston Red Sox, 3-2, at Fenway Park in Boston.

Oakland took a one-game lead in the race for the league’s wild-card spot despite getting three hits -- two of them in the first six innings off Derek Lowe, who also left with an injury, a blister on his right thumb.

Keith Foulke got three outs for his 32nd save.

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New York 6, Kansas City 3 -- Karim Garcia homered for the third consecutive game and Alfonso Soriano and Bernie Williams also homered as the Yankees won their sixth in a row. Andy Pettitte (15-7) took a shutout into the seventh, but was undone by three errors -- two by Soriano. Pettitte gave up three runs -- one earned -- but won for the 10th time in 11 decisions.

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Minnesota 8, Cleveland 2 -- Johan Santana stayed hot in August with eight strong innings and Matt LeCroy hit a three-run homer for the Twins at Cleveland. The Twins pulled to within 1 1/2 games of first-place Kansas City in the American League Central.

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Seattle 9, Toronto 1 -- Edgar Martinez hit a three-run home run, had four hits and drove in four runs to help the Mariners win at Toronto. Blue Jay starter Kelvim Escobar (9-7) lost for the first time since July 17 -- a span of seven starts.

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Tampa Bay 9, Baltimore 2 -- Rocco Baldelli drove in three runs to back right-hander Jeremi Gonzalez as Tampa Bay won at Baltimore to improve to 19-13 since the All-Star break. The Orioles lost their eighth in a row.

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Texas 5, Detroit 4 -- Alex Rodriguez hit a three-run homer and tripled to help the Rangers win at Detroit and stretch their winning streak to seven. Detroit has lost seven in a row and 11 of 12.