Matsui Comes Through with Game-Winning Run

Hideki Matsui singled home the winning run with one out in the ninth inning, giving the Los Angeles Angels a 4-3 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Saturday night.

The three-time defending AL West champs avoided what would have been their first 1-5 start since their inaugural 1961 season. They had given up 10 runs in each of their previous two games — the first time that happened to them since July 2005.

Bobby Abreu started the winning rally with the Angels’ sixth double of the game — one more than their combined total in the previous five.

Craig Breslow (0-1) intentionally walked Torii Hunter, then fell behind Matsui 2-0 before last year’s World Series MVP lined the next pitch just inside the right-field line for his first game-ending hit with the Angels.

Fernando Rodney (1-0) got the win with an inning of perfect relief.

Angels starter Jered Weaver allowed a run and four hits in six innings, struck out seven and left with a 3-1 lead. The right-hander has yielded just three earned runs over 23 innings in his last four starts against Oakland.

Eric Chavez greeted Kevin Jepsen with a leadoff double in the seventh, then came around on a wild pitch and a groundout by Travis Buck. In the eighth, Daric Barton drew a walk from Scot Shields, took third on Ryan Sweeney’s double and scored on a fielder’s choice grounder by Kevin Kouzmanoff, who homered with two outs in the fourth for Oakland’s first hit.

Ben Sheets gave up three runs and 10 hits over six innings in the second start of his comeback after missing last season because of elbow surgery. The right-hander escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fifth by retiring Howie Kendrick on a double-play grounder.

The Angels broke a 1-all tie with two runs in the fourth. Kendrick doubled home the first one and Erick Aybar hit an RBI single that fell in front of a diving Buck in left field.

Matsui opened the scoring in the third with a two-out RBI double. Kouzmanoff, acquired by Oakland in a trade with San Diego in January, tied it with his first home run for the A’s after averaging 19 over the previous three seasons with the Padres.

NOTES: OF-DH Jack Cust, designated for assignment by Oakland on April 3, accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Sacramento. It means the Athletics have to pay him his $2.65 million salary for this season. … All 223 of Sheets’ big league appearances have been as a starter. The only pitchers who have had more career starts without pitching in relief are Tom Glavine (682), CC Sabathia (290) and Juan Guzman (240). … Angels pitchers have allowed at least one homer in each of their first six games and 11 altogether. … Jeff Mathis, who had a bunt single during the fourth-inning rally, was the first Angels hitter to bunt his way on this season. They led the majors last year with 34 bunt hits.

ANAHEIM, Calif.