Pennsylvania

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)—Hideki Matsui(notes) would much rather have hit his first home run at home in the Coliseum weeks ago.

Yet Oakland’s new designated hitter could hardly complain about how the clout finally came—even if an announced crowd of 9,193 was all that saw him do it during a rare Monday matinee.

Matsui clobbered the first pitch of the 10th inning from Darren Oliver(notes) and sent it deep into the right-field seats for a game-winning homer, lifting the Oakland Athletics to a 5-4 victory over the Texas Rangers.

“Hopefully after today’s game there will be 100 more people,” Matsui quipped.

Grant Balfour(notes) (2-1) walked three batters in the top of the 10th to load the bases for pinch-hitter Yorvit Torrealba(notes), who struck out swinging on the right-hander’s 30th pitch.

Josh Willingham(notes) hit a tying home run leading off the eighth against Texas reliever Arthur Rhodes(notes), and the A’s took three of four from the reigning AL champions.

Matsui’s clout against Oliver (1-3) was the third of the season for the slugger and Oakland’s first walkoff homer of 2011. He added an RBI groundout in the fifth.

“If you saw it or heard it, you knew it was way back there,” A’s teammate Andy LaRoche(notes) said of the winning drive.

Texas has lost six of eight and 12 of 19 following a 9-1 start.

Michael Young(notes) hit a two-run double and a sacrifice fly but the bullpen couldn’t hold a one-run lead for Texas starter Derek Holland(notes), who allowed eight hits and three runs in seven innings.

The Rangers were hoping to gain some momentum from the series finale heading into a three-game series at Seattle in which Texas will miss Mariners ace and reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Felix Hernandez(notes).

“We’re not where we want to be but we’re not going to panic either,” manager Ron Washington said. “It was real tough. I thought we played hard, things just didn’t fall into place.”

Oakland’s Kurt Suzuki(notes) homered for the...