Rangers cool off White Sox

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- Nearly 40, Kenny Rogers is having one of

the best seasons of his career.

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color="#666666">Rogers

Rogers allowed three runs over seven innings, David Dellucci

keyed a seven-run second with a three-run double and the Texas

Rangers snapped the Chicago White Sox's four-game winning streak

with a 10-3 victory Tuesday night.

Rogers (16-7) is now one win shy of matching the most successful

season of his 16-year career -- 17-7 for the Rangers in 1995. He

gave up eight hits, struck out two and didn't walk a batter.

"He's a warrior," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "He

gives you the best he's got every day."

The Rangers built a 10-1 lead after five innings, allowing

Rogers to be more aggressive.

"When you get that kind of effort from your offense, it

benefits you in a lot of ways," said Rogers, who had lost four of

his previous six decisions. "They gave me the ability to forget

the mistakes I made. One of my main focuses was not to walk guys. I

wanted to get our offense back out there to keep swinging the

bats."

Alfonso Soriano homered and Mark Teixeira went 2-for-4 with

three RBI for the Rangers, who have won just two of nine to drop

eight games back of Boston in the wild-card race entering Tuesday's

games.

The Rangers bounced back from Monday's 7-4 loss to the White Sox

when Texas committed a season-high five errors.

"It was ugly but we tried to put it behind us," Teixeira said.

"Today was a new day and we did a good job when we were

struggling. At this point of the season, we'll take a win any way

we can get it."

Carl Everett had two doubles for the White Sox, who fell 8½

games behind the first-place Minnesota Twins in the AL Central.

Soriano's 25th homer in the first inning gave Texas a 1-0 lead.

Chicago tied it on consecutive doubles by Everett and Joe Crede.

Texas got just three hits while scoring seven times against Jose

Contreras (12-8) in the second to open an 8-1 lead. Contreras

walked five and hit a batter during the inning.

Dellucci had a bases-loaded double and Laynce Nix added an RBI

single. Contreras issued bases-loaded walks to Hank Blalock and

Teixeira, and he hit Soriano with a pitch to force in another run.

Rangers batters like to swing early in the count, but they were

content to walk, forcing Contreras to throw strikes.

"I was real happy with our selectivity at the plate," manager

Buck Showalter said. "There's a fine line between selectivity and

aggressiveness and I liked the way we were patient."

Contreras was removed with two outs and the bases loaded. Rookie

Felix Diaz retired the side on a fly ball.

Contreras, 4-2 with a 3.92 ERA in his first eight starts for the

White Sox since he was acquired from the New York Yankees on July

31, allowed eight runs and five hits in 1 2/3 innings, his shortest

outing with Chicago and second shortest of his career.

On June 2, Contreras gave up five runs while getting only two

outs against Baltimore in his shortest start of the season.

Contreras couldn't throw his fastball for strikes. The White Sox

want Contreras to rely more on the fastball than the forkball, his

out pitch earlier in his career.

"In the first inning I felt good," Contreras said through an

interpreter. "But in the second I couldn't control my fastball. It

was frustrating. If I can control the fastball, the other pitches

are better."

Guillen said Contreras "was pushing the ball and couldn't find

the plate. It was an ugly outing, but he's thrown the ball well for

us overall."

Teixeira's two-run single in the fifth off Jon Garland extended

the Rangers' lead to 10-1.

The White Sox cut the deficit to 10-3 in the seventh on

Everett's RBI double and Ben Davis' run-scoring single.Game notes
Soriano had gone 22 games and 89 at bats without a homer.

He has three straight seasons with at least 25 homers. ... Michael

Young was in the Rangers' leadoff spot for the first time since

Aug. 1. ... Blalock broke an 0-for-23 stretch with a fifth-inning

single. ... Garland made his first relief appearance since the 2001

season. ... Every Rangers starter scored at least one run.