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Sports 1B OAKLAND (AP) — Hideki Matsui cared more about get- ting his first hit with Oakland than where he took his grand total: He’s now over the 2,500 mark for his career between Japan and the majors. Matsui reached that mile- stone in a 7-1 win over the Seat- tle Mariners on Sunday as the Athletics celebrated Japanese Heritage Day and raised money for earthquake and tsunami vic- tims in his homeland. He dou- bled to start the second inning for his first hit of the year after an 0-for-7 start, then added an RBI single in a four-run sev- enth. ‘‘I feel relief just getting my first hit as a member of the A’s and getting our first win,’’ Mat- sui said. ‘‘I’m not really focused on my hits between Japan and the big leagues.’’ Mark Ellis drove in three runs to back Gio Gonzalez’s strong 2011 debut as the A’s avoided a season-opening weekend sweep against their AL West rivals. Coco Crisp hit an RBI triple in the third inning and missed hitting for the cycle by a home run. Oakland, which expects to contend for a division title, earned its first victory of 2011 to keep from starting a season 0-3 for the first time since 1996. ‘‘This is how it should have been right from the get go,’’ Gonzalez said. ‘‘We just needed to wake up a little bit.’’ Ryan Langerhans homered in the second but the Mariners managed little else against Gon- zalez, a 15-game winner last season who improved to 5-1 for his career against Seattle. Gonzalez (1-0), who picked out the new retro bright gold jerseys worn by the A’s for the first time, was unfazed after falling behind on Langerhans’ drive. He allowed six hits, struck out four and walked four, The Unlikelys Monday April 4, 2011 Ellis drives in 3 runs as A’s avoid Seattle sweep MCT photo Coco Crisp, right, slides safely into third with an RBI triple as Seattle Mariners third baseman Chone Figgins takes the tardy relay in the third inning, Sunday. retiring his final three batters after the first two hitters See A'S, page 2B Late heroics not enough for Giants LOS ANGELES (AP) — Marcus Thames tripled in the go-ahead run during a four-run seventh inning and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Francisco Giants 7-5 Sunday night, taking three of four from the defending World Series champions. LA scored all four runs off reliever Dan Runzler. Pinch-hitter Aaron Miles followed Thames’ clutch hit with a single to right, scoring pinch-runner Tony Gwynn Jr. Rafael Furcal doubled deep to right center, scoring Miles and making it 6-3. They added another run on Andre Ethi- er’s single. Hiroki Kuroda (1-0) allowed three runs and six hits — including homers to Pablo Sandoval and Pat Burrell — in seven innings. Jonathan Broxton pitched the ninth to earn his third save in as many games, although he gave up a leadoff homer to pinch-hitter Aaron Rowand. Barry Zito made his first start four days after hurting his neck and having his car seriously damaged in an accident in West Hollywood on the eve of opening day. Zito, who has missed just two starts in his career, gave up three runs and three hits in six innings, struck out five and walked two. Mickelson wins Masters tuneup HUMBLE, Texas (AP) — Phil Mickelson feels pretty confident about his game heading into the Masters. MCT photo Butler guards Ronald Nored (5) and Shawn Vanzant react after defeating Virginia Commonwealth 70- 62 in the men's NCAA Final Four semifinals at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Saturday. Butler and UConn play for it all HOUSTON (AP) — Butler coach Brad Stevens loves an under- dog, whether it’s his team back in the Final Four or Connecticut mak- ing an unprecedented five-games- in-five-nights run through the Big East tournament. Wait, what? A Big East team as an underdog? The coach at tiny Butler cheering for big, bad UConn? Welcome to the bizarro world of college basketball in 2011 — a sport where not only is anything possible, but where nothing quite makes sense. A sport in which the story of a small school from a small conference making a run to a title is no more rare than that of the late- season magic conjured by a power program with one of the nation’s best players. Butler and Connecticut will meet Monday in the national title game — the eighth-seeded Bulldogs try- ing to finish the deal after coming oh-so-close last season and the third-seeded Huskies (31-9), led by Kemba Walker, talking about shocking the world with their 11th straight victory after a regular sea- son that foreshadowed none of this. ‘‘We were all rooting for UConn because it was a great story,’’ Stevens said, ‘‘a lot of fun to fol- low.’’ As is Butler, the team from a 4,500-student campus in Indianapo- lis that practices at Hinkle Field- house, used as the backdrop for the classic movie ‘‘Hoosiers’’ — the based-on-reality melodrama in which tiny Hickory High stares down the biggest schools in Indiana and wins the state championship. On its second try. What seemed impossible in that movie is becoming more the norm, at least in the college game. Last season, Butler (28-9) came one des- peration heave from toppling Duke to become the first true mid-major to win the championship. This sea- son, Butler wasn’t even the biggest longshot at the Final Four. That was VCU, an 11th seed that fell to the Bulldogs in Saturday’s semifinal. As recently as 2008, the NCAA tournament landed all four No. 1 seeds in the Final Four. This year, there wasn’t a single 1 or 2 for the first time in the 33-year history of seeding. UConn coach Jim Calhoun said See FINAL, page 2B The defending champi- on at Augusta outdueled Scott Verplank on Sunday to win the Houston Open by three shots, his first vic- tory since earning his third green jacket last April. And it comes with a notable distinction. The win moved Mick- elson’s world ranking to No. 3, while Tiger Woods dropped to No. 7. It’s the first time Mickelson has been ahead of Woods in the ranking since the week before Woods won the 1997 Masters for his first major championship. ‘‘It feels really good for me to have played well and gained some momen- tum heading into next week,’’ Mickelson said. ‘‘I needed to have a week where I kind of put it together.’’ The 40-year-old Mick- elson shot a 7-under 65, the lowest closing score by a winner this year, to finish at 20 under. He was 16 under over his final 36 holes, after tying the course record with a 63 on Saturday, his lowest round in two years. He won for the fifth straight time when he’s shot 64 or better in at least one of the rounds. ‘‘I’ve been saying all year, ’I’m playing well, but I’m not getting the scores out of it, and I’m just kind of having a lapse of focus,’’’ he said. ‘‘It was a great week in that regard, and great for getting momentum heading in next week.’’ Tour rookie and sec- ond-round leader Chris Kirk (67) tied Verplank (68) at 17 under. Lefty is hoping he can repeat some history at Augusta this week. The 39-time tour winner is the last player to win the week prior to a Masters victory, capturing the BellSouth Classic in 2006 before See GOLF, page 2B Harvick makes late charge to win at Martinsville MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) — It was supposed to be a show- down between Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson, the only two drivers able to win at tricky Mar- tinsville Speedway of late. Instead, the end of Sunday’s race became a battle among the unexpected. First it was Kyle Busch, a mas- ter at seemingly every short track except this one, in the lead. Then, with a bump to get to the front came Dale Earnhardt Jr., loser of 99 consecutive races. But closing quickly was Kevin Harvick, dri- ving for a Richard Childress Rac- ing team that hadn’t won at Mar- tinsville since 1995. The race went to Harvick for the second consecutive week in another come-from-nowhere vic- tory. He passed Earnhardt with four laps remaining, and knew denying NASCAR’s most popu- lar driver the win might not have been, well, popular. ‘‘As I was catching him, I’m like, ’Man, I’m going to be the bad guy here,’’’ Harvick said. ‘‘I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do. I know the fans want to see him win. I want to see him win. It would be great for the sport and I think today went a long ways to showing how competitive (Earn- hardt) can be and that’s what we need. We all need him to win. ‘‘But I’m not going to back down.’’ Earnhardt settled for second and still has not won since Michi- gan in June 2008, his first season with Hendrick Motorsports. But he’s running much better this sea- son, and Sunday pushed him to eighth in the standings, the high- est he’s been since Texas this time last year. ‘‘I am frustrated. I got close,’’ Earnhardt said. ‘‘I ain’t won in a long time. I was thinking at the end I was meant to win the damn race.’’ Busch was third. And the favorites? Well, they were nowhere near the leaders during the action-packed final 20 laps. Hamlin and Johnson had com- bined to win the last nine races at Martinsville, and ran most of the day as if one of them would again make the trip to Victory Lane. Both failed to finish inside the top 10. Johnson was flagged for speeding on pit road late, finished 11th, and was irritated with NASCAR over what he thought was a bogus penalty. ‘‘I wasn’t speeding,’’ he insist- ed. ‘‘They didn’t like how it looked, the way I managed my timing lines. There is just no way. It won’t do me any good to have a conversation (with NASCAR), it isn’t going to matter.’’ Hamlin was 12th, and was furious about poor fuel mileage in his Joe Gibbs Racing car, along with slow pit stops. JGR, despite Busch’s strong runs, has been plagued with engine issues all season, and the fuel mileage prob- lems might have cost Hamlin the championship last year. ‘‘Our mileage just (stinks) real bad,’’ said Hamlin, winner of the last three races at Martinsville. ‘‘All of the things we need to do to be a championship team — we don’t have all those parts together right now.’’ See WIN, page 2B