Rangers 5, Athletics 4

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) The Oakland Athletics let a chance to sweep the Texas Rangers slip away.

The Rangers beat the Athletics 5-4 on Thursday, rallying from a four-run deficit behind a stellar bullpen performance and homers by Carl Everett and Mark Teixeira.

Leading 4-3, the A's were in position to break the game open in the sixth when they loaded the bases with nobody out, but they failed to score against reliever Aaron Fultz and finished with 12 runners left on base.

``If you told me before the series that we'd take two out of three here, I would have been happy,'' Oakland manager Ken Macha said. ``But we had an opportunity to win the game and with the bases loaded and nobody out so it was a tough loss.''

Francisco Cordero (1-1) threw a hitless eighth for the victory, and Ugueth Urbina pitched the ninth for his third save to help the Rangers stop a three-game losing streak despite issuing 11 walks.

``There were a lot of keys to the game,'' said Rangers manager Buck Showalter. ``Anytime you walk 11 guys and win a ball game, that's something.''

Four Rangers relievers combined to allow two hits over 5 1-3 shutout innings, with Fultz having the greatest impact out of the Texas bullpen.

After Fultz walked Miguel Tejada to load the bases, Eric Chavez grounded back to Fultz, who threw to home to start a 1-2-3 double play. Fultz intentionally walked Jermaine Dye, then struck out pinch-hitter Ron Gant to end the sixth.

``In that situation, I'm looking for a ground ball and luckily it was a ground ball to me,'' Fultz said. ``I usually would gladly trade one run for two outs but it worked out better.''

With the game tied at 4, Everett led off the eighth with a solo homer off reliever Chad Bradford (1-1). The ball went just inside the right field foul pole.

Bradford threw a 2-2 slider down and in, right in Everett's power zone.

``It should have been up a little more, not down and in,'' Bradford said. ``I was hoping it would go foul.''

Scott Hatteberg had three doubles and reached base five times, and Dye homered for the Athletics, who had their nine-game winning streak against the Rangers snapped.

Rangers rookie starter Colby Lewis walked eight over 3 2-3 innings, allowing four runs and four hits. The Rangers need to get some innings out of their young starters, and they know Lewis will experience growing pains.

``Part of the process is to have Colby out there,'' Showalter said. ``It was not the sexiest part of the game, but again, it's part of the process.''

Lewis walked Mark Ellis to lead off the game and Hatteberg followed with a run-scoring double that rattled around the right-field corner. Ellis' RBI double in the second made it 2-0.

Dye's homer, a solo shot in the third, extended Oakland's advantage to 3-0. Hatteberg made it 4-0 with a fourth-inning RBI double.

But Texas rallied in the fourth against Oakland starter Ted Lilly on singles by Juan Gonzalez and Everett and Teixeira's blast to left, narrowing the deficit to 4-3.

The Rangers tied it at 4 in the sixth when Ruben Sierra walked, moved to second on Everett's sacrifice bunt, and scored on Michael Young's single.

Lilly gave up four runs and eight hits over 6 1-3 innings. He struck out five and walked four.< ^Notes:@ Hatteberg tied the club record for doubles in a game. That's happened 15 times, most recently by Jason Giambi at Toronto on Aug. 15, 1999. ... When Rangers' C Einar Diaz threw out Eric Byrnes on an attempted steal of second in the second inning, it was the first caught stealing by a Texas opponent this season after eight successful steals.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)