OAKLAND, CALIF. ? When Mark Mulder arrived in the Oakland clubhouse Friday afternoon, equipment manager Steve Vucinich joked that the pitcher better not work too fast or he’d make the fans wait for it to get dark to see the postgame fireworks show.

That’s exactly what Mulder intended to do — he had a plane to catch.

Mulder fell two outs short of his third shutout of the season, pitching an eight-hitter Friday night to lead the Athletics to a 4-1 victory over Kansas City.

Mulder held the Royals scoreless until Brent Mayne’s RBI groundout with one out in the ninth inning before finishing his major league-leading fifth complete game.

Mulder (7-2) walked two and struck out six to move into a tie for the most wins in the majors. He made quick work of the opposition once again, needing only two hours, five minutes for the game. His last seven starts all have taken less than 2:30.

“I’m flying out in two hours to Chicago for my brother’s wedding,” Mulder said. “I had to make it a quick game.”

The left-hander will be standing next to his younger brother, Phil, as the best man today.

Vucinich didn’t believe Mulder actually would win so quickly.

“Every time you hope something like that happens, it never comes true,” Vucinich said.

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Lately, Mulder’s teammates make plans the nights he pitches.

“Dinner plans, and get a little more sleep, too,” Mark Ellis said. “It’s amazing. The streak he’s on is unreal.”

Eric Byrnes went 2-for-3 with a walk to increase his career-best hitting streak to 14 games, and Eric Chavez homered for Oakland.

Ken Harvey doubled twice for the Royals, who have lost six of seven and have a seven-game losing streak to the A’s. Oakland took eight of nine from Kansas City last season.

The A’s appeared inspired after losing two of three to Minnesota this week — a rematch of last season’s AL division series won by the Twins. It snapped their streak of 15 straight home series wins in the Coliseum.

Kyle Snyder (0-2), the Royals’ 6-foot-8 right-hander, missed another chance to pick up his first big league win.

Snyder gave up three runs — two earned — and 10 hits in seven innings, striking out six and walking one in his fifth career start.

“If I go out and stay ahead of hitters I can get people out,” Snyder said. “It’s a matter of locating pitches. I feel good about things, just not good enough to win.”

The A’s scored twice in the third inning. Terrence Long led off with an infield single and went to second on shortstop Angel Berroa’s throwing error.

Ellis then hit an RBI single and scored on Byrnes’ run-scoring hit.

Ellis was drafted by the Royals in the ninth round in 1999 and played with many of the Kansas City players in the minors. He visited with them before the game.

Erubiel Durazo added an RBI single in the sixth.

Mulder, pitching on two extra days’ rest, improved to 5-0 against the Royals in six career starts. He told pitching coach Rick Peterson he wants to go on regular rest from now on.

“I feel way too strong and I’m overthrowing,” he said.

The A’s “Big Three” pitchers of Mulder, Tim Hudson and Barry Zito are 17-6 in 30 starts this season.

Like is often the case when one of the three pitches, there was little need for warming up in the bullpen — although many of the relievers could be seen bouncing around between innings to stay warm on a chilly and windy night.

“It’s fun. You want to finish what you start,” said Mulder, who lost for only the second time all season in his previous outing, 3-2 to Cleveland last week.

He had runners aboard in the first three innings, walking Michael Tucker in the third before retiring 13 of the next 14.

He was saved in the second on Harvey’s base-running blunder. Harvey doubled, and then, on a single by Mayne, came crashing into home plate as the ball got away from catcher Ramon Hernandez. But Harvey was called out on an appeal because he did not touch third.

“It was a situation where I was close to third and I looked out and Byrnes was already catching the ball,” Harvey said. “I tried to cheat as much as possible and in doing so I missed the bag. It was doing everything I could to get to home plate. You have to be aggressive against Mulder.”

Notes: Kansas City was also held to one run in a loss at Seattle on Thursday. … Mulder has gone at least eight innings in his last six starts for a 1.02 ERA. … The average time of game in Mulder’s 10 starts this season is just under 2:25.