OAKLAND, Calif. – Errors once again played a key role in a Rangers game. For a change, it was the Rangers who benefited from them.

In a 4-3 win over Oakland on Friday night, the Athletics made four of them, and the Rangers actually took advantage to win their third consecutive game.

And when a defensive play had to be made, it was the Rangers who made it. Boy, did they ever. Josh Hamilton, lunging and stumbling, ran down Jack Cust's long fly ball in the seventh and turned what could have been a go-ahead hit into an inning-ending double play.

"I thought the ball was gone and I think Daric Barton [the baserunner who was doubled off] didn't think there was anyone on this planet that could make that catch," said second baseman Ian Kinsler, who caught the relay from Hamilton and flipped to first for the second out. "Josh changes the game every night. He didn't get a hit tonight and he still found a way to change the game."

Said reliever Eddie Guardado, who delivered the pitch: "Throwing a hanging slider, the sound off the bat, the way this park plays, it was gone. I saw Josh going back, but I just thought he was going to run out of room. A guy makes a play like that, it pumps you up, just absolutely elevates you.

"I waited at the first base line for him. I never do that."

It also made Oakland's mistake stand up as the deciding factor in the game. The Rangers scored two runs as a direct result of Oakland errors.

AP

The Texas Rangers' Gerald Laird (right) congratulates Josh Hamilton as he scores in the fifth inning.

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Kinsler led off the game with a fly ball to right center, but as right fielder Emil Brown and center fielder Ryan Sweeney converged, the duo nearly collided. The ball clanked off Brown, and Kinsler ended up at third.

He scored on Michael Young's sacrifice fly.

In the fifth, after Oakland had taken a 3-2 lead, the Rangers retook the lead with some A's generosity. Gerald Laird led off with a double, and Ramon Vazquez followed with a bunt. But A's pitcher Joe Blanton was late in getting to the ball, and Vazquez reached on an infield hit. When Kinsler bounced to short, Laird scored to tie the it.

When Young grounded to third, Vazquez, who had advanced to second on Kinsler's grounder, saw a chance to take an uncovered third. The A's tried to throw back to the base, but first baseman Barton's throw was wild. Vazquez scored the go-ahead run.

The Rangers then held on. After Vicente Padilla tired, the bullpen quartet of Jamey Wright, Guardado, Joaquin Benoit and C.J. Wilson held the A's scoreless for the last 3 1/3 innings.

With a 4-3 lead, Padilla allowed a leadoff single to start the sixth, then got two outs on a strikeout (his sixth) and a pop up.

But Bobby Crosby doubled, and then Ryan Sweeney walked to load the bases. With 108 pitches, Padilla was removed for Wright, who ended the rally by getting Donnie Murphy to bounce into a fielder's choice.