OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- A day after getting hit by a cell phone, Carl Everett again got the best of Chad Bradford.
Everett hit a go-ahead solo shot in the top of the seventh inning and the Texas Rangers held on for a 2-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics.
The game was tied, 1-1, when Everett led off the seventh and drove a 3-2 pitch from the sidearming Bradford (1-2) into the seats in right-center field.
"It felt good 'cause we won, it means nothing if we lose," Everett said. "That's what we all strive for as a team is to help our team win, and I was part of it today."
Everett homered in his fifth straight game to set a club record.
The Texas right fielder duplicated his feat of April 10, when he homered in the eighthoff Bradford to break a deadlock as the Rangers rallied from a four-run deficit to beat the Athletics, 5-4.
Everett's heroics in this one came a day after he was a target of Oakland fans, who pelted him with beer bottles and a cell phone. The volatile outfielder on Saturday said he will press charges for getting hit in the head with a phone.
"I don't think about none of that," he said. "I'm the guy (who) lives one day at a time. I don't live in the past. Yeah, you're going to need to know what happens in the past because life is in cycles, but yesterday's gone."
Despite leaving 15 runners on base, the Rangers salvaged the finale of their three-game series at Network Associates Coliseum.
"Obviously, we had some chances to open up to give us a margin of error," Rangers manager Buck Showalter said. "It didn't happen for us to go where we want to go this year. It's going to have to get better."
Texas wasted an opportunity to take the lead when rookie Mark Teixeira and Hank Blalock had back-to-back singles with one out in the sixth.
Ryan Christenson reached on the second error of the game by reigning American League MVP Miguel Tejada, loading the bases.
Oakland starter Ted Lilly struck out Einar Diaz before being relieved by Bradford, who struck out Michael Young to end the threat.
Texas starter Colby Lewis (3-0) gave up just a run and four hits in six innings, striking out three and walking four.
"I moved the fastball in and out, and my curveball was good early in the game," Colby said. "That's what I've been kind of struggling with a little bit in the last couple of starts, throwing (the curveball) for strikes, and it worked well. I threw it for strikes, threw it down a couple times, and late in the game I threw my changeup and that kept them off-balance."
The Athletics did not have a runner in scoring position after the first until Terrence Long legged out a double with two outs in the ninth.
But closer Ugueth Urbina got Ron Gant to fly out to left field and moved into a tie with Kansas City's Mike MacDougal for the major league lead with his seventh save.
"They have a really good bullpen, so it's going to be hard to score runs off those guys," Gant said. "They pitched well and did the job tonight. Sometimes you've got to take your hat off to pitchers that throw the ball well."
Oakland stalled offensively after scoring 22 runs in the first two games of the series.
