Bullington (1-2) allowed two hits, walked one and struck out five to outpitch A.J. Burnett (9-10), who yielded four hits and one run in eight innings. Joakim Soria finished the two-hitter, extending his club record with his 26th consecutive save.
Alex Rodriguez , who homered in his final three at-bats Saturday night, slammed a Bullington pitch to deep center leading off the second inning, driving Gregor Blanco almost to the wall. But A-Rod went down quietly the rest of the way.
The Yankees, facing a pitcher they’d never seen, were shut out for the sixth time one day after everyone in the lineup got at least one hit in an 8-3 victory.
At Minneapolis, Kevin Slowey held Oakland without a hit for seven innings before reliever Jon Rauch gave up the no-hit bid in the eighth as the Twins finished their fifth series weep.
Slowey (11-5) combined with Jon Rauch, Jesse Crain and Matt Capps to limit Oakland to three hits, while Jason Kubel drove in the first run for Minnesota and Jim Thome homered for a team that will open a key AL Central series against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday.
The Twins (68-50) also moved 18 games over .500, their best record in nearly two years.
Vin Mazarro (6-5) was effective for Oakland, limiting the Twins to two runs — one earned — on seven hits in six-plus innings. The A’s have now lost five of their past six.
At St. Petersburg, Florida, Jeremy Hellickson threw six sharp innings to become the first Tampa Bay pitcher to win his first three major league starts.
Hellickson (3-0) allowed one run and three hits, and has given up three runs and nine hits over 20 innings in the majors. Carl Crawford homered and drove in two runs to support him.
Jake Fox went deep for the Orioles, who were trying to win four consecutive series for the first time since August 3-15, 2004. Jake Arrieta (4-4) gave up three runs and six hits over six innings as Baltimore lost its second straight for the first time under Buck Showalter.
At Anaheim, California, Ricky Romero pitched seven solid innings one day after signing a multiyear contract extension, and Adam Lind homered to lead the Blue Jays.
Romero (10-7) allowed six hits, struck out four and walked three. The only run off the left-hander came in the fifth, when Mike Napoli hit his 19th homer, one shy of last season’s total.
Kevin Gregg struck out the side in the ninth for his 27th save in 31 chances.
Dan Haren (1-3) gave up four runs and nine hits over seven innings and struck out five in his fifth start with Angels.
At Arlington, Texas, C.J. Wilson dominated into the eighth inning and the AL West-leading Rangers used small ball to go ahead before Michael Young’s big hit against Boston.
Young hit a three-run homer in the seventh off Manny Delcarmen to make it 5-0.
Wilson (11-5) limited the Red Sox to one run and four hits while striking out eight with one walk. The left-hander exited after throwing 75 of his 113 pitches for strikes on a steamy day.
While Wilson has now won a career-best four consecutive decisions since mid-July.
At Chicago, Johnny Damon hit a go-ahead, two-run triple in the eighth inning, Jhonny Peralta homered twice and the Tigers rallied to beat the White Sox.
Miguel Cabrera and Ryan Raburn also connected for the Tigers, who won for only the third time in 16 road games. Detroit also snapped a string of 10 straight road series losses.
Cabrera went deep against Sergio Santos in the seventh and Detroit added three more in the eighth. Damon had the key two-out hit against J.J. Putz (5-5), but center fielder Andruw Jones dropped pinch-hitter Brandon Inge’s fly ball for a run-scoring error that made it 9-7.
After Jones homered in the White Sox eighth, Detroit put the game away with four runs in the ninth. Brad Thomas (5-1) pitched a scoreless seventh for the victory.
At Cleveland, Travis Hafner came off the disabled list to hit a grand slam, Michael Brantley drove in three runs and the Indians scored seven times in the seventh inning.
Hafner connected off Seattle ace Felix Hernandez (8-10) after a two-out error by second baseman Chone Figgins opened the door for Cleveland’s seven-run seventh inning.
Tony Sipp (2-2) worked a perfect seventh after Justin Masterson allowed one hit over six scoreless innings for Cleveland, which is just 4-11 at home since July 24.
Mariners interim manager Daren Brown dropped to 4-2 since being promoted from managing Triple-A Tacoma to replace the fired Dan Wakamatsu on Monday.
