ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- New manager, same terrible pitching staff.
Miguel Tejada and Scott Hatteberg each had three hits, including a home run, as the Oakland Athletics continued their domination of the Texas Rangers with a 13-5 triumph.
The Rangers hired Buck Showalter in the offseason and the veteran skipper was hoping to turn around a team that has plenty of offense but even more questions on the mound. This loss dropped Texas to 2-6, the same record they had through eight games last year.
Even worse, the Rangers are having trouble competing with the elite in the American League West. Texas has lost nine straight games to Oakland, tying the team record for consecutive losses to the same club.
"It does me no good to talk about (our negative start) or criticize the(players) publicly," Showalter said. "It seems every mistake we've made has been capitalized on."
Ismael Valdes (1-1), who got the Rangers' season off to a promising start with a well-pitched victory on Opening Day, was tagged for eight runs and seven hits in four-plus innings. He gave up three of the four homers Oakland hit, including Tejada's two-run shot in the fifth inning.
"He threw some pitches in areas he doesn't need to get them," Showalter said. "They hit every mistake he made tonight."
"I don't know what happened," Valdes said. "I felt really good. Everything is working, then ... boom, boom, boom."
A's starter Mark Mulder (1-0) did not pitch well but got the win, allowing four runs and nine hits in five-plus innings. He walked two and struck out four.
"He made it through five innings and then just ran out of gas," Oakland manager Ken Macha said.
"His command wasn't what it normally was," Showalter said. "We had a chance to beat him tonight if we had held them."
Juan Gonzalez hit his league-leading fourth home run and Rafael Palmeiro homered for the second straight game. Palmeiro's blast was his 493rd, tying him with Lou Gehrig for 19th place on the all-time list.
Homers by Terrence Long and Mark Ellis in the third inning staked Oakland to a 2-0 lead but Texas answered with a run in its half of the frame on an RBI double by Alex Rodriguez.
Tejada opened the fourth with a base hit but Valdes got the next two batters. Erubiel Durazo walked on four pitches and Long drew a free pass on five pitches to load the bases.
Ramon Hernandez made the bout of wildness costly as he delivered a two-run single. Chris Singleton followed with base hit that plated two runs and made it 6-1.
Tejada's two-run homer in the fifth was his second of the season.
Gonzalez's two-run homer in the fifth sliced Texas' deficit to 8-3. Gonzalez has four homers in 30 at-bats. Last season, he did not hit his fourth home run until June 6 and finished with just eight while being limited to 70 games with a thumb injury.
Palmeiro opened the sixth with his home run and highly touted rookie Mark Teixeira snapped an 0-for-14 slide with his first career hit - a double. Michael Young walked but Jeremy Fikac came on and induced a double play and lineout to escape the jam.
"I wasn't tired, I just lost command of my pitches," Mulder said. "All I had was a two-seamer in to the righties. It's not really anything I can pinpoint, I was getting away with a lot and the offense picked me up."
Fikac allowed a run and two hits in three innings.
Hatteberg's three-run homer in the eighth was his first of the season.
Teixeira picked up his first career RBI with a single in the eighth, but the A's tacked on two runs in the ninth.
Texas reliever C.J. Nitkowski tossed 2 2/3 scoreless innings in relief of Valdes.
