He could get more than that, depending on how well he pitches, how effective right-hander Luis Mendoza is on his rehab assignment that is scheduled to begin Thursday and how quickly Millwood recovers from the groin injury.

Millwood injured his groin Saturday and left the game after just 12 pitches. He was still sore Sunday. The Rangers opted to take no chances on having the injury linger. Last year, Millwood came back after two weeks from a hamstring injury, made one start and went back on the DL for two more weeks.

"This is a lot like a hamstring injury," manager Ron Washington. "You don't want to mess around with it."

Millwood, who had a rigorous offseason conditioning program, has had strained a groin before. It happened in 2005 while he was with Cleveland. He missed only two weeks and went on to win the AL ERA title.

A's 12, RANGERS 6: Sloppy baseball, the trademark of the first month of the season, returned for the first time in May. Rangers RHP Sidney Ponson allowed four first-inning runs and couldn't hold a slim lead after the lineup rallied back; a tired bullpen couldn't keep the game close. The final result was the end of the Rangers' five-game win streak. Ponson said he had no command of his sinking fastball, which led to a three-run homer by Oakland OF Emil Brown in the first inning. Ponson did manage to rally for four scoreless innings, but after the bullpen pitched 8 1/3 innings on Saturday, the Rangers tried to get Ponson through the sixth. He faltered, allowing consecutive walks to start the inning and later walking in a run. The bullpen allowed six runs over the final three innings.