ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Dewon Brazelton snapped his seven-game losing skid and Carl Crawford had a tiebreaking groundout in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ 3-2 victory over the Texas Rangers.

Brazelton (1-3) allowed two runs and four hits in 6 1-3 innings. He struck out four and walked three in picking up his first win since beating Oakland August 22, a span of 10 starts.

Crawford put the Devil Rays up 3-2 on a run-scoring groundball to shortstop in the sixth. It was his team-leading 15th RBI.

After Travis Harper pitched 1 2-3 scoreless innings, Danys Baez came on for the ninth. He put runners on first and third with two outs before getting pinch-hitter Gary Matthews Jr. to line out to center for his first save.

Mark Teixeira and Kevin Mench homered for the Rangers. Kenny Rogers (0-2) gave up three runs on seven hits and three walks over six innings. He struck out four. Rogers fell to 8-2 in 11 career starts against the Devil Rays.

Tampa Bay scored twice in the second, aided by Rangers right fielder Richard Hidalgo’s error.

Jonny Gomes had a leadoff single and scored on Toby Hall’s single when Hidalgo made an errant throw attempting to get Gomes at third. Hall then scored on Nick Green’s single to make it 2-0.

Texas had just one base runner – a second-inning walk to David Dellucci – before Teixeira hit a solo homer with two outs in the fourth.

The Rangers tied it at 2-all on Mench’s leadoff homer in the fifth. It was his second extra base hit of the season. The first was a bases-loaded triple in Wednesday’s 12-10 win over the Devil Rays.

Texas threatened to take the lead in the sixth, but Brazelton struck out Hidalgo with two on and two outs.

Brazelton had allowed nine runs, 11 hits and 12 walks over 8 2-3 innings over his previous two starts.

Rogers worked out of a bases loaded, two-out jam in the first by inducing Jorge Cantu to fly out to right. The Devil Rays are just 1-for-8 with the bases loaded this season.

Notes: Tampa Bay starting pitchers worked just 44 innings with an ERA of 10.43 in the previous 10 games. … Rogers threw 31 of his 112-pitches in the first. … Gomes was recalled from Triple-A Durham before the game. To make room for Gomes, RHP John Webb was optioned to Durham. … Dellucci has walked 16 times – including twice Thursday – in 12 games this season. … Crawford, the defending AL stolen base champion, has gone 11 games without stealing a base. It equals the longest drought in his career. He has four stolen bases on the year.

AP-ES-04-21-05 2208EDT