Rangers get even after beating Astros

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Texas Rangers aren’t a losing team anymore. They’re not winners yet, either.

Three weeks after coming off a trip with the worst record in the major leagues, the Rangers got back to .500 when they clinched their seventh consecutive series with a 6-2 victory over the Houston Astros on Saturday night.

“It’s significant because it happened this early,” Michael Young said. “Obviously it’s not where we want to end up. We have higher hopes for this season. To get back to .500 in the middle of May is a pretty good feeling.”

Milton Bradley and Marlon Byrd hit two-run homers and Vicente Padilla (6-2) worked seven innings to match his victory total from last season.

Texas (22-22) has won 15 of 21 games overall while winning seven series in a row for the first time since 1999, the season the Rangers won their last AL West title. They were 7-16 on April 24 after ending a trip with a seven-game losing streak.

“We’ve been playing some great baseball to get back” to .500, Manager Ron Washington said. “We never doubted we could play. It was a matter of us going out and doing it. We finally started doing it.”

After a 16-8 victory in the opener of the Lone Star Series on Friday night, the Rangers clinched the series and got to .500 for the first time since they were 5-5 on April 11.

Bradley homered in the first inning and Byrd hit one in the second to make it 4-1 against Roy Oswalt (4-4).

Oswalt left in the seventh after yielding consecutive singles and going to a 2-0 count on the third batter of the inning. He left because of a strained right groin after 111 pitches.