OAKLAND (AP) Stephen Piscotty homered and drove in three to back Chris Bassitt's winning season debut, and the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers 6-1 Monday night to end a three-game skid.
Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus left in the seventh inning as a precaution after being hit by a pitch in the first and bruising his right hand.
Bassitt (1-0), called up from Triple-A Las Vegas last week, struck out seven and walked four over five innings, allowing two hits. He has won his last three decisions dating to last season.
Matt Chapman added a sacrifice fly in the third as the A's built on their lead after Piscotty's solo drive in the second.
Fernando Rodney pitched the ninth for his 907th career appearance, moving him past Cy Young for 24th on baseball's career list.
Oakland bounced back from a weekend sweep at home by the Blue Jays.
The Rangers couldn't capitalize on their chances for Mike Minor (2-2), who gave up four runs and four hits, struck out four and walked three in six innings.
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Texas had won two in a row.
The Rangers stranded baserunners in the first, second, fourth, fifth and sixth innings before pinch-hitter Patrick Wisdom's RBI double in the seventh.
Announced attendance was a dismal 8,073 - Oakland's lowest crowd of the year.
Former A's left-hander Barry Zito, the 2002 AL Cy Young Award winner, sang the national anthem acapella from a broadcast booth after asking everyone in the ballpark to join in on a night much of the power - mics, LED signage, speakers and video screen - was briefly turned off to bring awareness to saving energy.
Zito is now a musician living in Nashville with his wife and two sons. A native Californian, Zito has teamed with Energy Upgrade California to do his part to be environmentally conscious. He now has a land line at home and turns off his cell phone at night.
"You hear about energy conservation but when you look at the sheer numbers of what's going on and how many millions of people live in California, if we're just doing little things like changing a couple light bulbs to LEDs or changing the filters on your HVAC vents, which I'm just learning how to do now as a man of the house every couple months, it just cuts down," Zito said.
