The performance of the Texas Rangers’ starting pitcher Monday night held different significance for Kevin Millwood than it did for the club’s 2010 finances.

Millwood wanted to go deep in the game, not because of what would happen for him contractually by logging 4 1/3 innings, but because he wanted to give the Rangers a chance to win.

He hadn’t done that lately, but he said that logging seven strong innings at McAfee Coliseum meant as much to him as the contract he secured for next season.

The right-hander allowed only an unearned run on three hits in a 10-3 victory over Oakland, and by reaching 180 innings on the season, the fifth year on his contract automatically vested for $12 million in 2010.

“I knew what I had to get to, but I wanted to get deep in the ballgame and I wanted us to win the game,” Millwood said. “If I do that, then everything else takes care of itself.”

The win was the Rangers' 82nd, guaranteeing they will finish above .500 for the first time since 2004.

The outing ended two weeks of speculation on whether the cash-strapped Rangers would limit Millwood’s innings the rest of the season to save money next year. Club brass insisted they wouldn’t, though his start Monday had been pushed back four days.

Millwood locked up the $12 million in the fifth inning after the first out was made on a double-play grounder by Mark Ellis.

Now, the drama is behind all parties involved. Millwood admitted that he was relieved because of the way he pitched. He didn’t have to answer any more questions from the media.

Manager Ron Washington is glad that Millwood will be back next season and will be thrilled if he can pitch in 2010 like he did against the A’s.

Millwood (11-10, 3.79 ERA) pitched around a pair of hits in the first inning and allowed only one over the rest of his 90-pitch outing, as the Rangers snapped the A’s seven-game winning streak.

The effort was Millwood’s longest start since June 21 and his best since June 16, and it marked a vast improvement over his previous five starts in which he had gone 1-3 with a 7.62 ERA.

Millwood said the mechanical adjustments he made since his last start Sept. 12 accounted for the progress. He worked to stay more upright during his delivery instead of arching his back, and it helped him locate his fastball better than in recent starts.

“I think it helped a lot,” he said. “It made getting the ball where I wanted to get it easier. There were a couple times I got out of it, but I was able to stick with it and get back on track.”

An offense that had produced nine runs in the previous seven games banged out 15 hits and reached double-digits in runs for the 13th time this season.

David Murphy, Julio Borbon and Hank Blalock had three hits and two RBIs apiece. Chris Davis also drove in two.

The Rangers’ bats started rolling from the start, as they scored an unearned run in the first on a two-out single from Blalock. Borbon had a two-run single in the second and later scored on a double by Murphy to make it 4-0.

They struck for two more in the fourth against Edgar Gonzalez on hits by Murphy and Marlon Byrd. That was it for Gonzalez, who allowed the only Rangers run during a 48-inning stretch last week.

Davis added a two-run triple in the seventh, and the Rangers scored twice on an error in the eighth.

“When you put double-digits up there, it says something good about our offense,” said Borbon, who also stole his 16th base. “The way we’ve been swinging the bats the last seven or eight games has been tough, so this is something to build off.”

The run Oakland scored in the sixth came after an errant toss by Ian Kinsler in an attempt to cut down the lead runner at second base. They got two in the ninth on the first big-league homer by Matt Carson.