OAKLAND, Calif. -- With the Texas rotation ravaged by injuries early in the season, Martin Perez has more than filled the void. Perez pitched his second consecutive shutout to extend his scoreless innings streak to 26 and the Texas Rangers wrapped up a three-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics with a 3-0 victory Wednesday. "Hes been the glue," manager Ron Washington said. "Hes held it together. Hes the one guy in that rotation whos been in it from last year who hasnt had a blip yet." The Rangers have been without Yu Darvish, Matt Harrison and Colby Lewis already at times this season but still find themselves in first place thanks to some strong play from fill-ins and major improvement from Perez. Perez (4-0) outpitched Sonny Gray (3-1) in a heralded matchup of emerging stars, allowing just three hits and two walks in his first start since throwing a three-hitter against the White Sox for his first career shutout. "I dont want to think too much about my ERA and the games that Ive thrown before," Perez said. "Im going to focus on my game today. We had a great game." Perez, who also threw eight scoreless innings against Houston on April 13, is the first Rangers pitcher to have three straight scoreless starts since Kenny Rogers had four straight over 30 innings in 2005. Perez also joined Charlie Hough in 1983 as the only Texas pitchers to have three straight starts of at least eight scoreless innings. "He knows how to pitch," Washington said. "He has weapons and he can throw them all for strikes and he has poise. He does a great job of staying with the game plan and thats something that hes learned from last year, how to study, how to go out there and just execute his pitches." Donnie Murphy homered and Michael Choice scored one run and drove in another for the Rangers, who moved a half-game ahead of Oakland in the AL West with their first sweep of the As since August 2011. The As never even threatened Perez on their way to getting swept at home for the first time since September 2012 against the Angels, ending a streak of 32 straight home series with at least one win. "Youre going to have your little lumps in the road," As third baseman Josh Donaldson said. "Everybody knows that here. We just have to come back." Oakland got leadoff singles from Jed Lowrie in the fourth and Derek Norris in the fifth for its first two hits off Perez. But Perez followed each of those hits by getting the next batter to hit into a double play, giving him a major league-leading 11 groundball double plays. Donaldson doubled with one out in the seventh, but was stranded there when Alberto Callaspo grounded out with runners on first and second to end the inning. "He keeps the ball off the barrel of the bat," As manager Bob Melvin said. "Hes pitched really well this year. The reason he can get deep in games is hes not striking a lot of guys out, hes just keeping it off the barrel of the bat." Gray allowed three runs and five hits in seven innings to end a six-game winning streak in the regular season dating to last September. He fell behind when Choice led the game off with a walk and scored on Alex Rios triple. The Rangers were poised for a possible big inning when Rios was originally ruled safe at home on a grounder Lowrie at shortstop. But Melvin challenged the call and Rios was ruled out on instant replay. Choice, traded from Oakland to Texas in the off-season, added an RBI single in the fifth and Murphy hit his first homer of the season in the sixth to make it 3-0. NOTES: Rangers 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff was held out with a sore back. ... Scott Kazmir (2-0) will take the mound against Brett Oberholtzer (0-3) on Thursday when Oakland opens a four-game series in Houston. ... Texas is off Thursday before beginning a three-game series in Seattle on Friday. 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Al Horford said all he had to do was make the catch near the basket and then shoot a soft jumper.HOUSTON -- Cain Velasquez stopped Junior Dos Santos in the fifth round Saturday night at UFC 166 to retain the heavyweight title. Dos Santos came out firing to start the final round, but Velasquez (13-1) worked him down to the mat only to have Dos Santos (16-3) get back up against the Octagon walls. The two traded lefts before Velasquez landed a left and took Dos Santos down head-first to the mat, causing referee Herb Dean to stop the bout at 3:09. "It was a pretty tough fight," Velasquez said. "It was very difficult. It was a tough night. I give him a lot of credit, he is a tough fighter. We were ready for everything. We trained hard in camp and prepared for everything. I tried to get him down this time. I was trying to throw crisper punches this time. I love the competition." The fight was third between the two. Dos Santos beat Velasquez in 1:04 in the first meeting in 2011, and Velasquez won the second by unanimous decision in 2012. "Im definitely satisfied," Velasquez said. "I just hope there are no more excuses on his part. Thats it. We dont look for the finish. We just put more pressure on and when it happens, it happens." In the co-main event, Daniel Cormier (13-0) unanimously outpointed Roy Nelson (20-9) in a heavyweight bout, with all three judges scoring it 30-27. Velaquez took Dos Santos down twice in a row midway through the third round with several rights and pounced on him on the ground, but Dos Santos was able to make it to his feet. In the post-fight press conference Dana White said he thought the fight should have been stopped in the third round. "Ive been around this sport and boxing for a long time and seen men who are too tough for their own good," White said. "I think Junior Dos Santos is one of them in the last Cain fight and this Cain fight. I think that fight should have been stopped. I dont think he should have taken more punishment." Velasquez remained on the attack, landing several rights with Dos Santos up against the wall, opening up cuts on Dos Santos left ear and mouth. Velasquez continued the attack to begin the fourth round, landing several combinations in the ffirst 40 seconds of the fourth round, and he continued the assault up against the Octagon wall.ddddddddddddDos Santos was able to break free and land a left. However, Velasquez landed more combinations, including a left that opened up a cut above Dos Santos right eye that stopped the fight for a moment before it was determined he could continue. Following the restart, Velasquez continued to land combinations, with Dos Santos getting in a left once. "He beat me up. What can I say?" Dos Santos said in the ring after the fight. "Hes a great fighter. I just want to give a good fight to the fans." Dos Santos was not in the post-fight press conference. Velasquez landed several lefts to start the second round and a kick to the head as well, cutting Dos Santos on the bridge of his nose. Velasquez had Dos Santos locked up against the walls of the Octagon several times in the second round, but Dos Santos landed a right at the end of the second round. Velasquez took Dos Santos to the mat midway through the first round, but was unable to land any hard shots, and Dos Santos got to his feet. The two went after it from the start, with Velasquez landing a couple lefts, and Dos Santos hitting an uppercut to go along with two lefts. The crowd was firmly in Velasquezs corner throughout the fight, yelling "Si, se puede" numerous times for the Mexican. In the co-main event, Cormier took Nelson down in each of the three rounds, including less than a minute into the bout, but he could not keep Nelson down. Cormier controlled the bout, landing more strikes than Nelson, but Cormier was not able to land combinations. Gilbert Melendez (22-3) earned his first UFC win, defeating Diego Sanchez (26-6) by unanimous decision -- 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27 -- in a lightweight bout. Melendez opened up a cut over Sanchezs left eye with a right hook with two minutes left in the first round. The referee stopped the fight midway through the second and third rounds when the cut reopened but in both instances, the fight was continued. Sanchez came back with an uppercut and a flurry in the third round as the sellout crowd chanted "Diego! Diego!" ' ' '