ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) – Rookie Dan Johnson hit his first career grand slam, and the Oakland Athletics beat the Rangers 5-4 Saturday night for their sixth straight win at Texas.

Oakland remained one game behind the Los Angeles Angels in the AL West and trails Cleveland by 11/2 games in the wild-card race. The A’s are 30-9 on the road since June 10, the best road mark in the majors in that span.

Rookie Joe Blanton (9-11) allowed four runs and six hits in six innings. He had yielded two runs or fewer in each of his nine previous starts.

Mark Teixeira hit his 38th homer, and Michael Young and David Dellucci added homers for the Rangers, increased their major league-leading best total to 238.

Texas rookie Kameron Loe (8-5) made his fourth start of the season and allowed five runs and eight hits in 6 1-3 innings.

Young tied his career high by hitting his 22nd home run of the season with one out in the first.

Loe was 3-0 with 0.95 in his first three starts but was hit hard early by the A’s. Eric Chavez and Jay Payton singled starting the second, and a walk to Scott Hatteberg loaded the bases. Johnson lined a 1-2 pitch from Loe into the seats in right for his 14th homer of the season.

Dellucci’s third inning homer cut the lead to 4-2, but Hatteberg had an RBI single in the sixth. Teixeira hit a two-run homer in the sixth, matching his career his for homers in the season.

Huston Street relieved with two on in the eighth and he retired Alfonso Soriano and Kevin Mench to escape the threat. Street finished for his 20th save in 24 chances.

Adrian Gonzalez singled to lead off the ninth and pinch-runner Mark DeRosa was sacrificed to second by Gary Matthews Jr. Street then retired Gerald Laird on a grounder and struck out Dellucci.

Notes: Young has hit safely in 19 of his last 20 games. … Johnson has hit 13 of his 14 homers on the road.

AP-ES-09-10-05 2244EDT

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