Hideki Matsui, a walk off homer hero against Texas Rangers
There is not much word of praise to go around for talented veteran, Hideki Matsui. The hero for the New York Yankees now plays with the Oakland Athletics and he still has the fire in the belly to knock the ball out of the ballpark.
The star played for the Los Angeles Angels last year but when many thought he was an aging star with a diminishing batting fume, he proved those critics wrong with a walk off home run against the Texas Rangers on Monday.
The designated hitter went 1-for-5 against the Rangers at the Overstock.com Coliseum in Oakland. The star collected two RBIs and a run for his efforts. His walk off homer was not seen by many fans. A little over 9,000 had come to the match and only a few
were left by the time the Japanese star struck for the A’s.
"Hopefully there will be 100 more people coming to the game tomorrow", Matsui joked.
The player faced off against closer, Darren Oliver. With only a single in 1-for-10 career feud with the reliever, Hideki took one pitch and smashed it for the stands in the tenth inning.
"I've faced [Oliver] several times in the past, so I have a pretty good idea of what kind of pitches he throws, so I was looking for a fastball, and I pretty much got it where I expected", Matsui said.
The Rangers had the lead in the seventh but the A’s struck back against them late to take away the series.
"I was trying to get ahead with a fastball", Oliver said. "That's pretty much it. The old guys let us down today. More often than not we're going to get the job done, but today wasn't our day".
Andy LaRoche, third baseman, was more than happy to talk about his teammate. He stated that the Japanese star was the most excited he had ever seen him before, this season.
"He doesn't get excited too often", LaRoche said. "Just normally goes about his business".
The star walked off the game with a .242 batting average. Many believe the best is yet to come from the living legend.
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