May Can’t Keep Pace With Mulder

Mark Mulder outpitched Darrell May, and Eric Chavez hit a two-run homer in the Oakland Athletics’ 3-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals Saturday night at Kansas City, Mo.

Mulder (4-2) pitched a four-hitter and had a season-high seven strikeouts in improving to 7-0 against the Royals. It was his second complete game in a row, following an 8-4 win at Minnesota last Sunday, and 19th of his career.

Kansas City lost its sixth in a row to the Athletics, all at home, and lost a chance to win consecutive series for the first time this season.

May (1-5) retired the last 11 batters in his first complete game of the season, and gave up five hits -- but one was Chavez’s homer that gave the A’s a 3-0 lead in the sixth inning.

After Bobby Kielty doubled to left with one out, Chavez bounced an 0-2 pitch off the top of the wall in left-center for his 10th homer.

*

Minnesota 4, Chicago 1 -- Torii Hunter homered twice at Chicago to help Seth Greisinger get his first win in two years. Hunter singled, doubled and hit solo homers in the sixth and ninth innings. His first homer of the night was the 100th of his career.

Greisinger (1-2) gave up four hits in seven innings to earn his first win since May 19, 2002, for Detroit against the Texas Rangers. The right-hander sat out the 2000 and 2001 seasons after elbow ligament replacement surgery and spent last season in the minors.

*

Texas 6, Detroit 1 -- Hank Blalock, Alfonso Soriano and Michael Young homered at Detroit, helping the Rangers (22-14) avoid losing three in a row for the first time this season. They are off to their best 36-game start since 1998.

The Tigers missed out on a chance to get back to .500 for the first time since May 3. But their 17 victories are more than they had until the middle of last June en route to a league-record 119 losses.

*

Boston 4, Toronto 0 -- At Toronto, Bronson Arroyo (2-1) yielded three hits in eight innings, and Kevin Youkilis homered for his first major league hit. Mark Bellhorn and David Ortiz also homered for the Red Sox.

With Byung-Hyun Kim sent down to the minors, Arroyo is back as the fifth starter. The 27-year-old right-hander -- making his first start since May 1 -- retired the final 13 batters he faced.

*

Cleveland 9, Tampa Bay 7 -- Victor Martinez drove in a career-high five runs to help extend the Devil Rays’ road losing streak to seven games. The Devil Rays dropped to 3-16 on the road. They have lost 11 consecutive road series since taking two of three games in Seattle from Aug. 26 to 28.