Power Ball: Athletics Matt Olson Hitting his Homers, but the Other Hits Haven't Fallen
For the last couple of weeks, it’s been home run or nothing for Oakland first baseman Matt Olson.
His last six hits have all been home runs, including the solo shot Friday night that set in motion a five-run rally that forced extra innings when Stephen Piscotty hit a grand slam. The A’s won 8-7 in 10 innings, Olson’s ground ball setting up Mark Canha’s sacrifice fly.
The homers have been good. On August 5 Olson hit a pair, driving in three runs in a 6-4 win over the Rangers, then came back the next day with a solo shot in another 6-4 win over Texas.
It was his three-run shot last Sunday that put the A’s ahead to stay in a 7-2 win over the Astros. And now he’s homered in his last two starts, including the ninth-inning shot to start the A’s best ninth-inning comeback since team played in Oakland in 1952.
But what about the non-homers? He’s bringing a .153 average into Saturday’s 4 p.m. start in San Francisco. That leaves him a bit baffled.
“You know, I really don’t know,” Olson said Saturday in a video conference call and the subject of his batting average vs. his homers came up. “I feel like I’ve been up to the plate taking pretty solid at-bats. For the most part, I don’t feel like I’m going to the plate as a .150 hitter and putting up .150-hitter at-bats.
“I’m putting the ball in play and I’m hitting it hard. It’s just that nothing’s falling right now.”
And he is putting the ball in play. He struck out 17 times in his first 14 games, including four strikeouts on Aug. 7. He’s straightened that out; in his last six games he’s struck out just three times, including twice in his last 23 at-bats.
“I mean, honestly, when you're hitting .150, you're addressing everything” Olson said when asked about the improvement. “I feel like I've gotten to a point where I'm not taking bad at-bats. You're gonna have some bad at bats here and there, but for the most part, I feel like I'm staying in my zone.
“I’m not chasing a bunch of stuff. I'm just not barreling the mistakes up perfectly right now and when I do, it seems like somebody is there when I hit them. I haven't made any specific adjustments as far as strikeouts; I'm just doing my same thing going after a pitch to hit.”
Through all of that, manager Bob Melvin has kept Olson batting in the middle of the lineup, hitting third, fourth or fifth.
“He’s pretty even keel,” Melvin said. “And again, it doesn’t feel like he’s hitting whatever his average is. He’s still productive, he gets big hits, he gets on base. That’s why I haven’t moved him anywhere in the lineup. (His average) doesn’t feel like that, and history has shown that he’ll pick it up.”
As big as Olson’s homer was Friday, it was the grounder he delivered in the 10th, moving Matt Chapman from second base to third and setting up Canha’s go-ahead sacrifice fly, that actually determined the outcome.
And he took no small amount of pride in that.
“Honestly, I was I was trying to do exactly what I did,” the first baseman said. “I’d been struggling a bit with getting too big and popping up lately. So, I got to 2-0 and just really want to emphasize moving him over and giving us a chance, especially being the away team.
“It’s big to put a run up on the board. I just didn’t get too big, and I did something that got the job done.”
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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