Athletics 6, Tigers 3: Seth Smith, Brandon Moss and Josh Reddick homered as visiting Oakland grabbed a 2-1 lead over Detroit in the American League Division Series.

Jarrod Parker (1-0) allowed three runs on five hits in five innings and two relievers bridged the gap to Grant Balfour, who exchanged words with Victor Martinez that led to a benches-clearing incident before retiring the side in the ninth for his first save of the series. Coco Crisp went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored for the Athletics, who can close out the best-of-five set Tuesday.

Jhonny Peralta drove in two runs and Martinez added an RBI double but Anibal Sanchez (0-1), who led the AL in ERA during the regular season, was knocked around for six runs (five earned) on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings for the Tigers.

Oakland broke through in the third when Yoenis Cespedes’ grounder to third got through Miguel Cabrera for a run-scoring error. Reddick led off the fourth with a towering homer to right and Crisp’s sacrifice fly later in the frame made it a 3-0 gap.

Detroit snapped a 20-inning scoreless drought in the fourth, knotting the game when Martinez delivered an RBI double and scored along with Prince Fielder on Peralta’s single to left. Moss restored the lead in the Athletics favor with a one-out blast to right in the fifth and Smith ended Sanchez’s afternoon and capped the three-run rally by following Cespedes’ single with an opposite-field shot into the bullpen in left-center.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Oakland is up in the series despite the performance of the second and third hitters in the lineup. Josh Donaldson and Jed Lowrie are a combined 2-for-24 with 10 strikeouts in the first three games. … Cabrera (groin/abdomen) singled for the third straight game but is without an extra-base hit in 12 straight going back to the regular season. … The Tigers will attempt to keep their season alive behind RHP Doug Fister in Game 4 on Tuesday. The Athletics will counter with RHP Dan Straily.