Alex Rodriguez let Gerald Laird pull away and a short while later, the Texas Rangers got away from the Yankees, too.

Laird outraced A-Rod in a rundown to score the go-ahead run in a three-run fifth inning, and the Rangers went on to rout the Yankees 14-2 Thursday.

“That,” Mark Teixeira said, “might have been a game-changer right there.”

Teixeira had four hits, including three doubles, and three RBIs. Pinch-hitter Victor Diaz hit his first career grand slam as Texas scored 10 runs in the seventh and eighth innings against Chien-Ming Wang (1–3), Luis Vizcaino and Sean Henn to break open the game.

Before that, Brandon McCarthy (3–4) limited New York to one run in 5.1 innings.

Most agreed that the rundown was the turning point.

“If they get him out there, they might have stopped our momentum,” Texas manager Ron Washington said.

With the score 1-all in the fifth, Texas took advantage of New York’s fielding failures. Laird hit a leadoff triple on a catchable fly that dropped behind Bobby Abreu, who slowed as he neared the right-field wall. Kenny Lofton grounded out with the infield in, and Brad Wilkerson grounded sharply to third.

Rodriguez threw home, trapping Laird in a rundown, and Jorge Posada threw back to third. A-Rod faked a throw and then ran after Laird, choosing not to throw to Wang covering the plate. Laird dived home for a 2-1 lead, clipping A-Rod under a chin with his foot.

“When I turned around heading toward the plate, I saw somebody there but I figured I’d just keep going to see if they made a play,” Laird said.

Teixeira and Sammy Sosa followed with consecutive RBI singles that made it 4-1. A-Rod wouldn’t directly address what went wrong during the rundown.

“I have no idea. That was so long ago,” he said, sounding like Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca.”

New York had won its first five games this year against last-place Texas and 18 of 20 since July 2005. The Yankees (16–17) headed to Seattle following a 4–3 homestand, falling short of sweeping the season series and moving over .500 for the first time since before play on April 21.

“For the most part, I think we’ve been playing pretty good,” Derek Jeter said. “We’d like to go 7–0 every homestand we play seven games but it’s not going to happen.”

Texas (14–20) set season highs for runs and hits (16). The Rangers entered with a .240 batting average, 12th among the 14 AL teams.

“We need to get our offense rolling or it’s going to be a long season,” Teixeira said.

McCarthy, who gave up five or more runs in each of his previous three starts, allowed five hits and threw a season-high 104 pitches. The only run off him was Melky Cabrera’s tying homer in the third. Cabrera had gone 266 at-bats without a home run since last August 10 when he connected off McCarthy, then with the Chicago White Sox.

“The most important thing was the changeup was there all day today when I needed it,” McCarthy said. “I was able to throw it for strikes when I had to and out of the zone when I needed to. Usually when that is there, it’s going to be a pretty good day.”