ARLINGTON, Texas -- Asked about his team's struggles against the Texas Rangers so far this season, A's manager Bob Geren pointed to the remaining 14 games his team has with Texas as a reason for optimism.

"We've got a lot of games left (to get them back)," he said.

Shortstop Bobby Crosby pointed out the same fact but took a different approach on the subject.

"I don't know what it is, but hopefully we can figure it out," Crosby warned, "because we're going to be playing them a lot."

Texas' 6-4 victory Saturday night in front of 22,899 fans at Rangers Ballpark gave the home team its fourth win over the A's in five meetings between them.

That's hardly a large enough sample size to draw conclusions from. But if the A's plan to stick around and contend in the American League West, turning the tables on this division foe will certainly help.

The Rangers took care of business Saturday in unorthodox fashion. Starting pitcher Kevin Millwood left just 12 pitches into the first inning due to a mild right groin strain.

Advantage Oakland, right?

Not the case, as five Texas relievers carried the load for 8-1/3 innings, allowing nine hits but making the big pitches when they needed to.

The loss kept the A's in a first-place tie in the AL West with the Los Angeles Angels, who were shut out by Tampa Bay for the second straight day.

The A's did manage to snap the Rangers' string of scoreless innings at 33 with an unearned run in the top of the third.

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That stretch was the longest such streak in the majors since Baltimore's 45 straight scoreless innings from Sept. 26-Oct. 1, 1995.

But the A's couldn't cash in on a couple of early chances, and leaving men in scoring position has been a theme the past two days. The A's entered the game hitting .305 with runners in scoring position, good for second in the majors. But they went 2-for-10 in that department Saturday and are 2-for-16 for the series.

For much of this season, the A's have come through in the clutch largely without the aid of the long ball. They have just 20 homers, third fewest in the American League entering Saturday, so they're relying on their hits finding the holes.

The A's had the bases loaded with one out in the second, but Ryan Sweeney hit into an inning-ending double play. They put runners on second and third with no outs in the fourth but came away with just one run on Sweeney's sacrifice fly that cut Texas' lead to 3-2.

"If we're not going to hit home runs, we've got to get guys in from third with two outs," Crosby said.

It was former Athletic Milton Bradley doing the majority of damage against A's starter Dana Eveland.

Bradley, who had harsh words for A's general manager Billy Beane after he was designated for assignment last season and traded to San Diego, doubled home the Rangers' first run in the first inning. Then he slammed a two-run homer to dead center off Eveland in the third to give Texas a 3-1 lead.

"That was the one guy I wasn't supposed to let beat me today, which was disappointing," Eveland said.

Texas pushed its lead to 4-2 in the seventh when Josh Hamilton's single off Alan Embree scored German Duran. That run was charged to Santiago Casilla, breaking Casilla's string of 18 scoreless innings to start the season.

He fell one-third of an inning shy of Jim Corsi's Oakland record for scoreless innings by a reliever to start the season.

Texas added two more runs to go up 6-2 in the eighth against Keith Foulke, making his first appearance since coming off the DL.

Those runs would be big, because the A's came back with two in the ninth on Frank Thomas' two-out, two-run double.

Contact Joe Stiglich at jstiglic@bayareanewsgroup.com.

RANGERS 6, A'S 4

  • TODAY: A's (Rich Harden 1-0) at Rangers (Sidney Ponson 2-0) 12:05 p.m. TV: Ch. 36. Radio: 106.9-FM; 1550-AM