Laffey lowered his ERA to 3.25 after holding the Texas bats to six hits over 6 2/3 innings. The 24-year-old threw 104 pitches, walked three and fanned two before giving way to Joe Smith and Tony Sipp, who combined for 2 1/3 innings of one-hit relief to finish the game.
Dustin Nippert, making his fifth start of 2009, took his first loss of the season after a five-run, 10-strikeout performance over six innings. Reliever Doug Mathis was perfect over the final two frames, but the bats could not produce anything to complement his effort.
The Rangers got all five of their runs in the third inning, beginning with a bases-loaded walk by Jhonny Peralta. Travis Hafner followed up with an RBI single to right, and 23-year-old Luis Valbuena's double put Cleveland on top 4-0. Trevor Crowe closed out the scoring with a sacrifice fly to drive in Hafner.
Every batter in Cleveland's lineup registered a hit or an RBI except nine-hole hitter Andy Marte.
Texas' two, three and four hitters all went hitless, but slugger Josh Hamilton went 2-for-4.
