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DiNardo sharp as A's blank Rangers

Jul 18, 2007 - 11:32 PM OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- Lenny DiNardo tossed seven scoreless innings and Bobby Crosby homered and drove in two runs as the Oakland Athletics snapped a season-high nine-game losing streak with a 6-0 victory over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday afternoon.

Travis Buck, Shannon Stewart, Mark Kotsay and Marco Scutaro each drove in a run for the Athletics, who used a four-run second inning to set the tone for the victory.

Oakland snapped its longest losing streak since 1998 with its first victory after the All-Star break.

"It was a solid all-around baseball game today," Athletics manager Bob Geren said. "Lenny pitched really well, and it was a good offensive day for us as well. It was a needed win for the team. I couldn't be happier with the entire performance."

The Athletics (45-50) now are 11 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (55-37) in the American League West and 10 1/2 games behind the Cleveland Indians (55-39) in the wild card race.

It is the farthest the Athletics have been out in the playoff race since they finished the 1998 season 14 games out of first place.

DiNardo (4-6), who entered Wednesday's game having lost his last two starts, yielded just three hits, while striking out three without walking a batter. Santiago Casilla worked the eighth and ninth, allowing just one hit, to record his third save.

"I don't think I was the one to end the streak," DiNardo said. "We ended it as a team. We came together, put some runs on the board and pitched well. I think we can build momentum off of this. I think we played good baseball as a team. I give a lot of credit to my teammates."

Oakland opened the scoring in the second inning against Texas starter Kevin Millwood. With runners on first and second and no outs, Millwood fielded Kotsay's comebacker and threw high to shortstop Michael Young to load the bases.

Scutaro then lined a single to center and Crosby followed with a walk to make it 2-0. After Kurt Suzuki struck out, Buck hit a sacrifice fly and Stewart added an RBI single to cap the scoring in the frame.

"I was just trying to get a double-play ball there and get out of the inning with as little damage as possible," Millwood said. "They hit some good pitches after that and took advantage of the mistake."

"I tell you, if we make that double play, instead of the score being 4-0 after that inning was over, it probably would have been 2-0." Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "We still felt good about the game. Even after that inning, (Millwood) threw up five zeros. Its just that their pitcher threw up seven."

Crosby greeted Texas reliever Willie Eyre by belting a solo shot over the left field wall for a 5-0 advantage in the seventh. Kotsay drove in Oakland's final run with a fielder's choice ground ball in the eighth.

"I think we were all just waiting for it to end," Crosby said. "It took longer than we would have liked, but we knew it would end at some point. All of us were struggling at the same time. Hopefully, this will give us some confidence."

Millwood (6-8) allowed four runs - one earned - and three hits in six innings, while striking out four and walking three for the Rangers, who had their three-game winning streak snapped.