"I haven't pitched in six weeks. I was obviously trying to come in on him but there was no intention to hit him or to come in behind him," Lackey said. "It was definitely surprising."

Lackey, activated from the disabled list to make the start, had a 1-0 lead after Chone Figgins walked on four pitches to start the game and scored on a wild pitch by Vicente Padilla (3-2).

Kinsler jogged to first base without incident after getting plunked.

But Davidson tossed Lackey, who raised his arms and stood near the mound with a look of disbelief on his face. Manager Mike Scioscia argued at length with Davidson and crew chief Tim Tschida to no avail, though he wasn't ejected.

"He hasn't thrown in two months," Scoscia said. "It looked bad, but John's trying to make sure the two-seamer is in."

Still, Tschida said the second pitch was too much for umpires to overlook after Friday night, when Kinsler homered twice.

"When the first pitch of the next game to that hitter is behind him, that's a red flag," Tschida said. "We gave (Lackey) the benefit of the doubt because maybe he was a little amped up coming off the DL. When he hit him with the second pitch, that was something else."

Both benches were issued warnings, though there were no more incidents.

Kinsler stole second and scored on the first of Josh Hamilton's two sacrifice flys. Texas went ahead to stay on Michael Young's tiebreaking RBI single in the fourth just before Hamilton's other run-producing flyball made it 5-3.

Texas (22-14) has won 12 of 14 and leads the Angels by 3 1/2 games in the AL West. The Rangers are eight games over .500 for the first time since June 2005.

Lackey, who missed the first first six weeks of the season because of a forearm strain, said he wasn't even thinking about a tension-filled series between the two teams three years ago that included a benches-clearing brawl.

Scioscia, former Rangers manager Buck Showalter and six others, including Padilla, were suspended after two days of trouble in that August 2006 series. Lackey was fined, but not suspended after coming out of the dugout in a game he didn't pitch.