"Rich Harden gets plenty of attention in his home country, but he hadn't won a game in Canada, nor beaten the Blue Jays.

On Tuesday night at Rogers Centre, Harden put on an excellent performance, striking out eight men in seven innings and allowing one run. Backed by homers by Josh Willingham and Kurt Suzuki, Harden earned his first career victory over Toronto as the A's bested the Blue Jays 4-1.

"Wow, yeah, I was aware of my past performances here," said Harden, who had a 13.50 ERA in three previous starts at Toronto. "It felt good to get it out of the way."

Oakland has won three consecutive road games for the first time in four months, going back to April 9-11. Manager Bob Melvin called it "a well-played, crisp game all the way around."

Harden usually gets a great deal of attention in Toronto because of his nationality, but on Tuesday, he was the lesser story as far as the local media was concerned, because it was the first home game for Blue Jays rookie Brett Lawrie, who also is Canadian. Lawrie received a standing ovation during his first at-bat; the 21-year-old, called up five days earlier, entered the game 5-for-11.

"It's got to be pretty exciting for him to play at home here in Canada," Harden said. "It is a big deal. ... On a night like tonight, I'm going to do everything I can to get him out, but I hope he does well. It's definitely exciting to see him out here."

Harden won the British Columbia matchup, retiring Lawrie all three times he faced him and striking him out twice. In the seventh, the Blue Jays had men at the corners with nobody out, and Harden got Aaron Hill to pop up before striking out J.P. Arencibia. That brought up Lawrie, and Harden struck him out swinging at a 3-2 changeup."