OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Rookie Mark Mulder took no time to get his first big league win. No. 2 took a lot more work.

Randy Velarde, Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez homered in a five-run sixth inning to back Mulder's strong pitching as the Oakland Athletics beat the Kansas City Royals 6-3 on Monday night.

	Rookie Mark Mulder snapped a string of four no-decisions by allowing one earned run in six-plus innings.

Ben Grieve also homered for the A's, who won for the sixth time in seven games to maintain their hold on first place in the AL West.

Mulder (2-0) went six-plus innings and allowed three runs -- one earned -- on six hits to snap a string of four no-decisions since beating Cleveland in his major league debut April 18. He struck out two and walked none.

"For a while there, I thought he was going to go 1-0 the whole year," teammate Matt Stairs said. "He went out and never got rattled when we played some bad defense behind him in the first inning. He settled down and made some quality pitches."

After shortstop Tejada's error and a hit batsman opened the door to two unearned runs in the first, Mulder set down 11 straight batters before giving up a hit to Johnny Damon leading off the sixth.

"I made some good pitches when I needed to," Mulder said. "It always feels good to get a win but it's not the most important thing as long as the team gets a 'W.' The guys came through for me. They had that big inning and that really picked me up. You know you're going to get them sooner or later. You just have to be patient."

Damon said Mulder, the A's No. 1 pick in the 1998 June draft, showed a lot of composure.

"We've heard so much about him," Damon said. "They say he's the real deal and he showed it tonight. Anytime you can keep a team to three runs, the A's will score for him and he'll win. He was able to avoid the big inning and in the next inning their bats came to life. We couldn't pick up the big hit."

Jeff Tam helped see to it, working out of a no-out, bases-loaded jam in the seventh during two scoreless innings, and Jason Isringhausen pitched the ninth for his eighth save.

"In that situation, you've got to get a ground ball," said Tam, who started a home-to-first double play on Rey Sanchez's comebacker. "Luckily, it came right to me. We've practiced that one million times. That's why I didn't botch it."

Chris Fussell (3-2), who allowed one run in two previous starts since being recalled from Triple-A Omaha, gave up four runs and three hits in five-plus innings. He walked four and struck out four.

Fussell had held Oakland without a hit until Grieve connected for his fifth homer, a solo shot with two outs in the fourth.

"I was throwing nice and easy," Fussell said. "They just got a couple of hits and I walked too many. I have to work on once I get strike one, getting strike two. I just stayed up a little it too much."

Oakland went into the sixth trailing 3-1. But Velarde, who missed the first 31 games of the year with a left knee strain, started the inning with his first homer of the season.

Jason Giambi singled and Stairs walked to chase Fussell. Jose Santiago relieved and retired Grieve and Jeremy Giambi, who had a run-scoring groundout.

Tejada worked the count full before hitting a go-ahead two-run homer and Chavez followed with a drive clearing the right-field wall. It was the fifth homer of the season for each of them.

Kansas City took a 2-0 lead in the first on Mark Quinn's RBI single and Joe Randa's sacrifice fly. Quinn added an RBI groundout in the sixth.

Game notes
The attendance of 6,836 was a season-low in attendance for the A's at Oakland Coliseum. Meanwhile in Sacramento, the A's Triple A club played their home opener before a sellout crowd of 14,111. ... The 2-hour, 24-minute game was the shortest of the season for Oakland. ... The successive homers by Tejada and Chavez marked the third time this year Oakland batters have gone deep back-to-back. The last two do it were Jason Giambi and Tejada on May 2 at Kansas City. ... The Royals, a league-best 14-4 at home, fell to an AL worst 5-15 on the road. ... Kansas City's Carlos Beltran snapped an 0-for-24 skid when he led off the seventh with a single.