Rangers 4 - 5 Athletics
Final/10
  for this game

Matsui's homer lifts A's over Rangers in extras

May 3, 2011 - 1:49 AM

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Oakland, CA (Sports Network) - Hideki Matsui hit a solo homer in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift the Oakland Athletics to a 5-4 win over Texas in the finale of a four-game set at the Coliseum.

Matsui finished with two runs batted in and Josh Willingham went 2-for-4 with a solo shot for the Athletics, who won three games in the series. Kurt Suzuki added a solo homer.

"That's a great ball team over there," Suzuki said. "They got good pitching and everyone knows about their hitting. You have to try and contain their offense a little bit and you got to go out there and score runs to beat those guys."

Starter Brandon McCarthy worked six innings, allowing four unearned runs on six hits with two walks and four strikeouts. He also committed two errors in taking a no-decision.

Michael Young had a two-run double and knocked in three for Texas, which has dropped six of eight.

"We're going to keep battling," Rangers manager Ron Washington said about the team's struggles. "Sometimes you get tested and we're being tested, and I expect us to fight through this and come out on the other side."

Derek Holland got the starting nod for the Rangers and yielded three runs -- two earned -- on eight hits over seven innings. The left-hander walked a pair and fanned four.

With Oakland trailing, 4-3, Willingham led off the eighth with a solo homer to left off Arthur Rhodes that evened the game.

Texas went quietly in the top of the ninth and the Athletics had a threat turned aside in the home half, forcing the game into extra innings.

Grant Balfour (2-1) stranded the bases loaded when he struck out pinch-hitter Yorvit Torrealba in the top of the 10th and Matsui hammered a first-pitch fastball by Darren Oliver (1-3) over the wall in right in the bottom half that ended the game.

Cliff Pennington's run-scoring bunt single in the second gave the A's an early lead.

Young's two-run double to left in the third put the Rangers in front, but Suzuki tied it at 2-2 with a solo homer just inside the left-field foul pole in the fourth.

The back-and-forth battled continued in the fifth when Texas answered with a pair to go back in front. With the bases loaded and nobody out, consecutive sacrifice flies by Young and Adrian Beltre made it a 4-2 game.

The Athletics got a run back in the home fifth on Matsui's RBI groundout.

Game Notes

Texas held a 10-9 edge in the 2010 season series with Oakland...The Athletics stranded nine runners on base, while the Rangers left 10.






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