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Hamilton powers Rangers past Athletics

Jun 1, 2008 - 4:43 AM ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- The Texas Rangers finished a record-setting May in much the same way in which they have prevailed in many of their games this season - riding the powerful bat of Josh Hamilton.

Hamilton homered and finished with three RBI Saturday, leading the Texas Rangers to an 8-4 victory over the Oakland Athletics.

After the Athletics scored three runs in the top of the fifth to knot the game at 3-3, Michael Young answered with an RBI double to score Ian Kinsler in the bottom of the fifth.

Young and Kinsler now have 16-game and 15-game hitting streaks, respectively.

"They (Kinsler and Young) set the table and kept it going all night," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "When Oakland came back and tied it in the fifth, it was Kinsler and Young who started us rolling again."

Two pitches later, Hamilton sent a changeup from Oakland starter Joe Blanton (3-7) just over the fence into the Rangers' bullpen to help the Rangers re-establish their three-run bulge.

"I tell them (Kinsler and Young) if they'll get on, I'll knock them in," Hamilton said. "They (the A's) had come back to tie it up but when we got to the plate they got on and I was able to take one deep to give us our lead back."

The home run tied Hamilton with White Sox slugger Carlos Quentin for the American League lead in homers while also giving him a major league-leading 61 RBI, 12 more than Philadelphia's Chase Utley.

The win allowed Texas to go 19-9 this month, the first time in team history that it won that many games in May.

"That achievement is significant if you think about where we came from in April (10-18)," Washington said. "We came out of spring training knowing we could play, it just took us a while to get there."

Sidney Ponson (4-1) permitted four runs and nine hits over seven frames for the Rangers, who moved over the .500 mark (29-28) for just the second time this season.

"It was especially nice to come out and put a really good game together like we did tonight, to get over the .500 hump," Rangers catcher Gerald Laird said.

"Ponson pounded the strike zone and made their guys hit the ball. The way he hung in there in the fifth inning and then came back strong in the sixth and seventh says a lot about where he is right now."

Texas jumped out to an early 3-0 advantage after two innings. Hamilton's RBI groundout scored Young in the first, and Brandon Boggs and Kinsler each added run-scoring singles in the second.

The game remained in the Rangers' favor until the top of the fifth, when Travis Buck hit a two-run single and Joel Hannahan's sacrifice fly plated Mark Ellis.

"We had a big inning in the fifth to tie the game," A's manager Bob Geren said, "but Texas bounced back with a big inning themselves. That was one tough inning."

Hannahan's RBI double in the seventh trimmed the Rangers' lead to 6-4 before Texas added two runs in the eighth on run-scoring hits from Frank Catalanotto and Kinsler.

Blanton suffered his first loss in three starts, surrendering six runs and 10 hits with a walk and no strikeouts over six innings.