Rich Harden pitched two-hit ball over seven innings against his former team while leading the Texas Rangers to a 4-2 victory over the host Oakland Athletics on Monday.

Harden (2-1) struck out nine batters and didn’t walk anyone. He led the majors in walks (23) entering the contest.

Oakland threatened in the ninth with Kevin Kouzmanoff hitting a two-run homer off Frank Francisco. After Francisco walked Eric Chavez, Neftali Perez entered and retired the final three hitters for his sixth save of the season.

Texas went up 1-0 in the fourth when Ryan Garko’s infield groundout scored Vladimir Guerrero. The Rangers added two runs in the fifth on Michael Young’s run-scoring double and Josh Hamilton’s RBI-single.

Rookie first baseman Justin Smoak homered in the ninth.

Young went 3-for-4 for Texas, which had 13 hits.

Dallas Braden (3-2) allowed three runs and 11 hits in seven innings for Oakland.