Athletics pound Darvish in rout of Rangers (Reuters) - Japanese pitching sensation Yu Darvish allowed a Major League Baseball career-high six runs in a losing cause on Thursday as the American League-leading Texas Rangers were trounced 7-1 by the Oakland Athletics. Darvish, who was looking to become the American League's first eight-game winner of the year, allowed six hits and six walks in 5-1/3 innings and fell to 7-4 in his rookie season after starting the campaign 4-0. The host Athletics blew the matinee game open with a four-run fourth inning, highlighted by Coco Crisp's three-run triple, and ended Darvish's day in the sixth inning after the 25-year-old pitcher walked two of the first three batters he faced. Oakland took the lead in the first inning when Seth Smith hit a run-scoring single and then added another run when Crisp belted a homer off Darvish in the third inning. The Rangers answered one inning later when an Adrian Beltre single scored Josh Hamilton but that was the only run the normally potent Texas offense could generate. Brandon McCarthy, who picked up his fifth consecutive win after starting the season 0-3, allowed three hits, one run and struck out five batters in seven innings. Reporting By Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina; Editing by Frank Pingue