Grand Slam Carries Texas Rangers Past Oakland Athletics
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- Adrian Beltre hit a grand slam not long after Texas ended a 24-inning scoreless streak and Martin Perez pitched seven strong innings for his first win since late June, leading the Rangers to a 5-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Monday night.
Beltre's 100th home run at Globe Life Park, which went about a dozen rows above the 14-foot wall in left field, came against former teammate Ross Detwiler (1-1) in the fifth inning with Texas trailing 2-1.
The decisive homer, Beltre's 10th career slam, came three batters after Shin-Soo Choo fractured his left forearm when he was hit by a pitch.
The AL West-leading Rangers were coming off consecutive shutout losses at home to Detroit and were an out shy of 25 straight scoreless innings when Elvis Andrus lined a single to right in the fourth.
Perez (8-8) gave up five hits and two runs -- one earned -- with six strikeouts in seven innings. He had gone 0-4 over eight starts since a 6-2 win against Boston on June 26.
The left-hander set a Texas record with his 32nd groundball double play, an inning-ender by Brett Eibner in the fourth. C.J. Wilson had the previous mark of 31 in 2011. Perez got another one to end the sixth.
Matt Bush struck out two in a perfect eighth, and Sam Dyson got another double play in the ninth for his 27th save.
Beltre's 19th homer, which gave him 432 to break a tie with Cal Ripken on the career list, came after singles from Ian Desmond and Carlos Beltran following the pitch that hit Choo. It was Beltre's first slam since April 2, 2011, his second game with the Rangers.
Coming off eight shutout innings in a 1-0 win over Baltimore in his first big league start this season, Detwiler held the Rangers scoreless for three innings but didn't make it out of the fifth. He gave up seven hits and five runs in 4 2/3 innings.
Ryon Healy led off the second with his sixth homer to give Oakland a 2-0 lead.
