ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- Doug Davis could have been distracted Tuesday night by worry over his 5-week-old son, who underwent emergency stomach surgery 24 hours earlier.

	Rangers starting pitcher Esteban Loaiza throws against Oakland in the first inning Tuesday.

But the rookie left-hander managed to give the Texas Rangers exactly what they needed -- two innings of scoreless relief.

Rafael Palmeiro hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the sixth inning and Davis shut down Oakland as the Rangers beat the Athletics 10-7.

Davis had flown home to Oklahoma City to be with his son, Jordan, who had surgery Monday night. The operation was successful and when Davis was sure Jordan was out of danger and got the OK from his wife, Stacy, he rejoined the Rangers on Tuesday afternoon.

"All I could think about was my son, but maybe that helped," said Davis (2-1). "My wife was understanding. I was pretty petrified when I found out he needed the surgery.

"It was hard to concentrate on the game. I just wanted to be a robot. I'm just glad I could help the team win."

Davis, recalled from Texas' Triple-A farm team in Oklahoma on Sunday, started the night with a major league ERA of 8.68 this season, but he had one of the best outings of his big league career.

"I told him I appreciated him being here tonight," Rangers manager Johnny Oates said. "To do what he did under those circumstances, I applaud him. I don't know if I could have done what he did."

The A's have lost six of seven overall and four in a row to the Rangers. Texas continues to batter Oakland pitching.

"We have got to find a way to shut their offense off," said A's manager Art Howe. "We started off good, battled back and never quit. I thought we would come back, but we didn't."

With the score 7-all, Rusty Greer drew a walk from Scott Service (1-1) and Palmeiro followed with his 22nd homer.

It was the 383rd home run of Palmeiro's career, moving him ahead of Jim Rice and Frank Howard into 38th place on the all-time list.

Dave Martinez singled home a run in the Texas eighth.

John Wetteland pitched the ninth for his 21st save.

Ben Grieve gave the A's a 2-0 lead in the first with his 16th homer. He is a native of Arlington and the son of Rangers TV analyst Tom Grieve -- both father and son have 65 career home runs in the majors.

After Ben Grieve's seventh lifetime homer at The Ballpark in Arlington, Texas came back with a five-run third against Gil Heredia. Oakland helped the Rangers by making two of its four errors.

Howe partly blamed bad patches in the turf at The Ballpark in Arlington for his team's shoddy fielding.

"This field isn't the greatest field, and there are a lot of bad areas, but we just aren't making good plays," Howe said.

Scott Sheldon led off the third with his first homer. Frank Catalanotto reached on second baseman Randy Velarde's error and took third on Rusty Greer's single.

Palmeiro followed with an RBI single, and Greer scored when right fielder Matt Stairs' throw went into the Oakland dugout for another error. Ivan Rodriguez added a sacrifice fly and Mike Lamb had an RBI single to make it 5-2.

In the fourth, Stairs' 14th homer and Terrence Long's RBI double cut Texas' lead to 5-4.

Rodriguez's run-scoring single in the fourth chased Heredia and gave the Rangers a 6-4 advantage.

Oakland chased Texas starter Esteban Loaiza in the fifth when Grieve walked and went to third on Stairs' double. Miguel Tejada's groundout off Francisco Cordero drove in Grieve to make it 6-5.

Texas pushed its lead to 7-5 in the fifth on Gabe Kapler's run-scoring double. Oakland tied it in the sixth on Velarde's RBI single and Jason Giambi's sacrifice fly.

Game notes
Palmeiro is two homers behind Dwight Evans on the career homer list. ... Rangers LHP Darren Oliver will be sent to Triple-A Oklahoma on Wednesday for a rehabilitation assignment. Oliver, on the 15-day disabled list because of weakness in his left shoulder, is scheduled to throw about 45 pitches in a game against Nashville. Oliver will make another start for Oklahoma on Sunday, then will be further evaluated. ... Sheldon's other big league homer came May 28, 1997, while with the A's. ... Heredia was 7-1 in his eight previous road starts. ... Texas has won 10 of its last 12 meetings with Oakland.