MLB: Oakland 4, Texas 2

ARLINGTON, Texas, April 30 (UPI) -- Five scoreless innings Thursday from Dallas Braden helped lead the Oakland Athletics to a 4-2 victory against the Texas Rangers.

Braden (3-2) surrendered five hits with four walks and six strikeouts in 111 pitches before he was replaced by Andrew Bailey at the start of the bottom of the sixth.

Bailey hurled two scoreless innings, Russ Springer gave up two hits -- one a solo homer by Hank Blalock in the eighth -- while Michael Wuertz earned his first save despite serving up a solo homer by Andruw Jones in the ninth.

A key play was Ryan Sweeney's leaping catch on an eighth-inning fly by Ian Kinsler.

Matt Holliday hit a solo homer in the ninth, one of Oakland's 11 hits.

Kurt Suzuki had two hits and one RBI for the Athletics, who broke a string of five straight setbacks against losing pitcher Vicente Padilla (1-2).

He gave up three runs and eight hits in six innings.