Oakland -- Not long ago, the A's were a proud defensive team, and now their manager is calling the latest defensive mishaps "demoralizing and embarrassing," not to mention "inexcusable."

In the harshest critique of his team since becoming manager June 9, Bob Melvin offered nothing but the truth after the A's fell 7-1 to the Rangers, ruining pitcher Trevor Cahill's gem-in-the-works.

"He pitched very well," Melvin said. "We gave him no help as a team. It's demoralizing and embarrassing. No excuses. As a player, you better be embarrassed. As a coach, as a staff, everybody, there's nothing more embarrassing than playing bad defense. You can not pitch on days. You don't hit on days. But you should bring your glove every day. It's inexcusable."

After taking infield practice before the game, a rare routine in this era, Oakland's infield committed four errors, and as Melvin pointed out, "Really, we played worse than that."

Cahill tossed 5 1/3 hitless innings before Yorvit Torrealba singled in the sixth (he was caught stealing) and would have escaped the inning if second baseman Jemile Weeks hadn't committed a double error with two outs, enabling Endy Chavez to reach second. Ian Kinsler followed with an RBI double.

The Rangers' only baserunner in the first five innings was Elvis Andrus, who reached when shortstop Eric Sogard erred by hurrying a throw to first base. The fourth error was third baseman Scott Sizemore's, accounting for an unearned run in a three-run eighth.

Sizemore also made a funky play in the seventh, recovering a ball on the outfield grass and throwing errantly toward third in a failed effort to catch Josh Hamilton - Mike Napoli followed with an RBI double. With two outs in the ninth, Sizemore missed a not-so-routine backhand attempt of Ian Kinsler's two-run double.

"Trevor pitched his butt off out there, and we didn't help him out," Sizemore said. "You feel you could've done more to help his cause."

Weeks has 11 errors in 56 games, the most by an A's second baseman since Mark Ellis' 14 in 154 games in 2003. Weeks, who bobbled Chavez's grounder and made a wild throw, admitted he needs to make "smarter decisions, but I'll definitely not let up in my aggressiveness."

Perhaps Phil Garner will provide input. The former second baseman witnessed every blown play in his second day on the job as special adviser. As is, "We work on it ad nauseam," Melvin said, "and we'll continue to work on it, and at some point in time, we've got to get it right."

In defense of the defense, Weeks is relatively new to the majors, Sizemore is learning a new position, and Sogard is a backup. Still, the A's lead the major leagues with 98 errors, and this is a team that reached 100 errors only once in seven years.

The Rangers, now runners-up with 96 E's, played spotless. In fact, Hamilton robbed Ryan Sweeney of an extra-base hit and RBI that would have tied the score 2-2 in the seventh.

"That's a big play in the game," Melvin said. "Typically in close games, it's good defensive plays versus bad defensives plays. Unbelievably, that was a close game for a while. Then we just played our way right out of it."