AL ROUNDUP Rangers streak to eighth straight over Royals, 5-3

With the win Texas remained tied with Boston for the wild card lead.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Mark Teixeira hit his 30th homer, Manny Alexander added a two-run double and the Texas Rangers won their eighth straight game Saturday night with a 5-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
The Rangers matched their longest winning streak of the season and remained tied with Boston for the AL wild-card lead. They trail first-place Oakland by a half-game in the AL West.
Texas starter Mickey Callaway gave up only two runs and five hits but was lifted after 4 2-3 innings, one out from qualifying for his first win since April 1, 2003, with Anaheim.
Making his second start since missing 123 days with an elbow injury, the right-hander was trying to end a personal eight-game losing skid. He gave up Ruben Gotay's sacrifice fly and Joe Randa's RBI single in the fifth before giving way to Franklin Francisco (4-1).
Francisco retired Mike Sweeney on a pop fly to end the threat and went two innings for the win, giving up one run and two hits.
Francisco Cordero pitched a scoreless ninth for his 39th save in 41 chances. He converted his 19th consecutive opportunity, tying the team record he set earlier this season. Desi Relaford flied out to the warning track with two on to end the game.
The Royals stranded seven runners in the last three innings.
Teixeira homered leading off a four-run fourth against Brian Anderson (2-11). Alexander's two-run double a few minutes later made it 4-0, and Eric Young's RBI single put the Rangers on top 5-0.
Young doubled leading off the first for the Rangers and scored on Alfonso Soriano's sacrifice fly.
Anderson went 5 2-3 innings and gave up five runs on eight hits. Randa also had an RBI single in the seventh.
TEXASKANSAS CITY
abrhbiabrhbi
EYong dh3121DJesus cf5010
Dllucci dh1000Gotay 2b4001
MYong ss5020Randa 1b5022
ASrano 2b4011MiSwy dh4010
Txeira 1b4111Nunez rf5020
Mench lf5000Rlaford 3b4010
BJordn rf4110Guiel lf3000
Nix cf0000Buck c3220
Mathws cf4000ABlnco ss2110
Brajas c2110RMateo ph1000
Alxndr 3b4122WGrero ss0000
Totals365105Totals363103
Texas100400000--5
Kansas City000020100--3
E--Relaford (7). LOB--Texas 11, Kansas City 12. 2B--EYoung (16), MYoung (23), BJordan (9), Barajas (17), Alexander (1). HR--Teixeira (30). SB--DeJesus (5). S--Barajas. SF--ASoriano, Gotay.
IPHRERBBSO
Texas
Callaway4 2-352214
Francisco W,4-1221111
Almanzar1-300010
Mahay110011
FCordero S,39120002
Kansas City
BriAnderson L,2-115 2-385522
Sullivan1 1-310012
Carrasco210020
HBP--by Callaway (Relaford). Umpires--Home, Fieldin Culbreth; First, Tim McClelland; Second, Jim Wolf; Third, Tony Randazzo. T--3:12. A--25,035.
Athletics 5, Devil Rays 0
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Barry Zito scattered four hits over eight shutout innings, leading Oakland past Tampa Bay.
Bobby Crosby, Marco Scutaro and Mark Kotsay homered for Oakland, which has won five straight. The Athletics have hit 14 homers -- including seven solo shots the last two days -- over the past four games.
Zito (9-9) struck out six and walked one to improve to 5-2 in eight starts since the All-Star break. He lost both of his starts against Tampa Bay last season, giving up 14 runs and 21 hits in 10 2-3 innings.
Only one baserunner -- Carl Crawford in the sixth -- reached third base against Zito. Crawford was thrown out at the plate by third baseman Eric Chavez on a grounder by Jose Cruz Jr.
Chris Hammond pitched a scoreless ninth to complete the five-hitter.
John Halama (6-6) gave up five runs and eight hits in five-plus innings for the Devil Rays, who have lost four straight and 10 of 11.
Tampa Bay's Aubrey Huff left after the first inning with back spasms. He has a team-best 22 homers and 80 RBIs.
Consecutive homers by Crosby and Scutaro gave Oakland a 2-0 lead in the third. Crosby, who broke out of a 3-for-40 slid with three hits Friday, has homered in two straight games.
Kotsay had been hitless in 15 at-bats against Tampa Bay this season before homering in the fifth to make it 3-0.
Erubiel Durazo had a run-scoring double, and Crosby hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth to put the A's ahead 5-0. Durazo has 11 RBIs in five games against Tampa Bay this year.
OAKLANDTAMPA BAY
abrhbiabrhbi
Kotsay cf5111Crwfrd cf4020
Byrnes lf4030Upton dh4020
EChavz 3b4000Huff rf1000
DMiller c4110JoCruz rf3000
Httberg 1b4100TMrtnz 1b3010
Durazo dh4011Lugo ss4000
Kielty rf2010THall c3000
Crosby ss3112Cantu 3b3000
Scutaro 2b4111Rolls lf3000
RSnchz 2b3000
Totals34595Totals31050
Oakland002012000--5
Tampa Bay000000000--0
E--RSanchez (3). DP--Oakland 1, Tampa Bay 2. LOB--Oakland 7, Tampa Bay 5. 2B--Byrnes (28), Durazo (26), Kielty (12), Upton (4). HR--Kotsay (12), Crosby (17), Scutaro (4). SF--Crosby.
IPHRERBBSO
Oakland
Zito W,9-9840016
CHammond110000
Tampa Bay
Halama L,6-6585421
Nunez200004
Seay110000
DBaez100000
Halama pitched to 3 batters in the 6th. HBP--by DBaez (Byrnes), by Nunez (Kielty). WP--Zito. Umpires--Home, Tim Timmons; First, Kevin Kelley; Second, Bruce Froemming; Third, Mike Winters. T--2:24. A--25,123.