Hatteberg, Mulder Keep the A’s Rolling

Scott Hatteberg delivered the biggest hits. Mark Mulder threw his share of quality pitches. Jermaine Dye and Bobby Crosby made the key plays.

All in all, a complete game for the Oakland Athletics.

Hatteberg homered twice, drove in five runs and made a nifty slide to score, and Mulder hung on for his major league-leading 15th victory, leading the hot Athletics over the host New York Yankees, 13-4, Tuesday night.

In a matchup of American League division leaders, the A’s rallied for their ninth victory in 10 games.

Mulder (15-3) had been 0-4 with a 9.97 earned-run average at Yankee Stadium in the regular season.

He got off to a shaky start when Jorge Posada hit a three-run homer in the first inning and Gary Sheffield lined his 24th shot in the third. Mulder settled down and lasted seven innings.

“I was just struggling with my delivery in the early innings. Every night is different. Some starts you feel great. Tonight, I didn’t,” Mulder said.

The score was 4-4 in the fourth inning when the Yankees put two runners on with two out and Derek Jeter followed with a drive toward the right-field corner. Dye nearly overran the ball, but reached back as he jumped at the wall to take away an extra-base hit.

Earlier in the inning, Crosby made a diving catch to start a double play. In the fifth, the rookie shortstop made two neat plays on consecutive grounders to throw out Posada and Hideki Matsui.

Mark Kotsay led off the game with a single and later collected the 1,000th hit of his career. Eric Byrnes hit a triple, double and single.

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Boston 5, Tampa Bay 2 -- Curt Schilling pitched a six-hitter at St. Petersburg, Fla., for the 82nd complete game of his career and third this season, and Jason Varitek hit a two-run homer to lead the Red Sox.

Schilling (13-5) retired 12 in a row after Aubrey Huff’s two-out single in the first, a streak that ended on Geoff Blum’s single with two out in the fifth.

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Texas 5, Detroit 4 -- Mark Teixeira and Kevin Mench homered for the Rangers and Eric Young hit a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning at Detroit.

Frank Francisco (3-1) pitched 1 1/3 perfect innings in relief of Kenny Rogers, who failed to become the American League’s second 14-game winner.

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Toronto 7, Cleveland 6 -- Pinch-hitter Frank Menechino drew a bases-loaded walk to drive in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning at Toronto after Carlos Delgado hit a two-run homer to tie the score.

Trailing, 5-3, the Blue Jays sent 10 batters to the plate in the eighth inning and scored four times to take the lead.

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Baltimore 9-5, Seattle 7-4 -- Rafael Palmeiro passed Babe Ruth on the career hit list, and the host Orioles swept a doubleheader against the Mariners for the first time in 16 years.

Palmeiro moved past Ruth for 36th place on the list with his 2,874th hit, a fourth-inning single against Jamie Moyer in the second game.

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Chicago 12, Kansas City 4 -- Jose Contreras (9-5) won his debut with the White Sox, and Paul Konerko hit a grand slam at Kansas City, Mo., to tie for the AL home run lead with 28.

Contreras, obtained from the Yankees on Saturday for pitcher Esteban Loaiza, was given a 7-0 lead by the fifth inning and left after the sixth.