ARLINGTON, Texas — Jayson Nix hit another home run, but he couldn’t get the Indians a win Wednesday night.

Nix homered for the fourth time in three games but the Indians still fell 4-3 to the Texas Rangers.

Michael Young homered and Josh Hamilton stretched his home hitting streak to 27 games to lift the Rangers. Young came back refreshed after his first day off of the season with a two-run homer in the fifth that drew the Rangers even at 3.

Entering Wednesday, Young was in a 4-for-25 slump, and manager Ron Washington said Young wasn’t playing up to his All-Star standards and needed a break.

“When you play baseball as much as these guys do some­times one day’s all you need,” Washington said. “I tried as hard as I could to keep them out of the whole game because a whole day off means a lot to a baseball player.”

Young, the Rangers’ career hit leader with 1,768, is competing with four others for the final slot on the AL All-Star team.

“I enjoy the All-Star Game, so I’d like to go, don’t get me wrong,” Young said. “But it also would be nice to get the three days off.”

Hamilton extended the sec­ond- longest home hitting streak in club history with an RBI sin­gle in the first. Al Oliver hit in 30 straight home games in 1981.

Julio Borbon’s two-out single in the sixth off rookie Mitch Talbot (8-8) put Texas ahead.

Nix, claimed off waivers from the White Sox on June 24, batted only .163 with a homer and five RBIs in 24 games for Chicago. He’s been more pro­ductive in his 12 games for the Indians with five homers and eight RBIs.

Talbot allowed four runs and seven hits in 5 2 / 3

innings, losing for the fourth time in his last five starts.

The pitch Talbot regretted was a fastball down the middle that Young knocked into the seats.

“That was one of those pitches that got away from me and I paid for it,” Talbot said.

Seven batters were hit by pitches in the first two games of the series, and Texas’ Andres Blanco became the eighth when he was struck in the leg by Talbot’s fastball in the second inning.

Indians manager Manny Acta was ejected by first base umpire Tim Timmons with two outs in the ninth for arguing a checked-swing call.

Acta had taken off his cap in the dugout and waved it after Timmons called a strike on a check­swing by Jason Donald. Timmons immediately tossed Acta for the gesture.

Acta raced to first base to argue, and after the game he said his young players don’t always get the benefit of the doubt from umpires.

“It’s a shame,” Acta said. “Everybody’s talking about pace of the game. Here I get thrown out for taking my hat off and I have to go 150 feet (to argue) and delay the game. I know they’re human, but I’ve been doing rebuilding jobs for four years and these kids don’t get the benefit of the doubt.” “They don’t get the same check-swing calls as some of the other guys,” he said.

Notable

Indians 1B Matt LaPorta didn’t start for the sec­ond consecutive game after being accidentally elbowed in the head by Elvis Andrus on Monday night. LaPorta has a bruise on his head and a sore neck.