White Sox Beat Royals Thanks to Hot Buehrle

Mark Buehrle went two months without a win. Now the Chicago White Sox left-hander can’t lose.

Buehrle won his seventh straight decision as the White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 9-6, on Tuesday night at Kansas City, Mo., and closed within three games of the AL Central lead.

Paul Konerko, Joe Crede, Tony Graffanino and Magglio Ordonez each homered and had three hits for the White Sox, who tied a season high with 16 hits in the opener of the three-game series.

Kansas City has led the AL Central since July 1. Chicago hasn’t been this close to first place since July 2.

Buehrle (9-10) went 0-9 with a 6.86 earned-run average in 11 starts from April 20 to June 11, and is 7-0 with a 2.88 ERA in nine starts since.

His sinker helped him out in the fifth and sixth with double-play grounders, both started by second baseman Roberto Alomar.

“Robby has been a big part of our defense, not just for me, but everybody -- diving and stopping runs,” Buehrle said.

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Oakland 6, Cleveland 2 -- Mark Mulder had 11 strikeouts while pitching into the eighth inning at Oakland.

Ramon Hernandez had a two-run double in the seventh as the A’s scored five late runs to avoid wasting another strong start from Mulder (14-7).

Mulder finished one strikeout shy of his career high, giving up seven hits and retiring 14 of 15 at one point.

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Seattle 11, Detroit 5 -- Edgar Martinez, Bret Boone and John Olerud hit home runs at Seattle.

The Tigers’ record fell to 28-76, worst in the majors by far. With 58 games remaining, they’re on a pace to lose 118.

They lost 106 last season and had a franchise-record 109 defeats in 1996.

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Baltimore 7, Minnesota 5 -- Jay Gibbons homered and drove in three runs and Tony Batista also hit a home run at Minneapolis. Since 1996, the Orioles are 24-9 against the Twins at the Metrodome and 47-17 overall.

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Tampa Bay 9, Toronto 8 -- Rocco Baldelli hit a go-ahead, two-run single in the ninth inning at Toronto.