Arlington, Texas ? Pittsburgh went from losing in one windy city to another one.

Hank Blalock’s looping RBI single with two outs in the 10th inning pushed home Laynce Nix with the winning run, and the Texas Rangers in beat the Pirates, 6-5, on Monday night in the first interleague game of the season.

Like Nix, Blalock hit a flyball to center that was knocked down by winds gusting near 25 mph and dropped several feet in front of charging outfielder Tike Redman.

“The wind helps, and it helps,” Rangers manager Buck Showalter said. “It’s a tough read on a full swing and the ball coming off the end of the bat.”

Redman came closer to catching Blalock’s ball than the one hit by Nix, but couldn’t recover after initially taking a step back.

“I wasn’t in far enough, and it just fell in,” Redman said. “I thought it would be pretty easy with a big yard because I like to run. Those would have been real easy to catch if I played here all of the time.”

Manager Lloyd McClendon, back after serving a two-game suspension during the Pirates’ last two games against the Chicago Cubs, said Redman had “bad jumps.”

Pittsburgh lost for the eighth time in nine games despite scoring more than three runs for the first time in that span.

Blalock hit a full-count pitch against Mike Johnston (0-3) for the game-winner. Nix had moved to third on Michael Young’s line-drive single with two outs.

“It took two bleeders to win,” Young said. “That stuff happens, and we’ll definitely take it.”

Texas never has lost to the Pirates. But the Rangers, who left Pittsburgh with a three-game sweep two years ago in their only other series, struck out a season-high 15 times against five pitchers.

Both teams got runners to third in the ninth before inning-ending strikeouts. And both had running catches in the outfield.

Rob Mackowiak had a leadoff single and was stranded when Redman struck out against Francisco Cordero (2-0), who stayed in to pitch the 10th.

Athletics 13, Reds 2

Oakland, Calif. — Mark Mulder (7-2) stalled Ken Griffey Jr.’s run for 500 homers on a night when Oakland delivered most of the longballs, getting a grand slam from Scott Hatteberg. Griffey went 1-for-3 and remained stuck at 498 home runs. Mulder allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings. Mark Kotsay, Erubiel Durazo and Damian Miller also homered for the A’s, who improved to 13-0 against the NL Central. The A’s have won six of seven overall. Cory Lidle (4-5) gave up nine runs and nine hits in 32/3 innings.

Mariners 5, Astros 0

Seattle — Clint Nageotte (1-1) pitched six shutout innings in his first major-league start, allowing six hits with eight strikeouts and three walks. Julio Mateo finished for his first save. Scott Spiezio had a solo homer, two singles and two RBIs as the Mariners scored three runs off Brandon Duckworth (1-1) in only one-third of an inning, the shortest outing of his career. Seattle had 11 hits and won its third straight. Houston’s Jeff Kent singled in the fifth, extending his career-high hitting streak to 22 games.