Martinez Tribune The website of the Martinez Tribune.
BY DANIEL GLUSKOTER
A pair of home runs by Matt Olson as part of a four-hit game helped carry the A’s to a 6-3 win over the Kansas City Royals Sunday afternoon at the Coliseum.
Olson’s second multi-home run game of the season raised his total to 18 for the year, the second most in the AL and trailing only the major league leading total of Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr’s 21.
Matt Olson follows the flight of his second home run of the day during the fifth inning of the Athletics 6-3 win over the Kansas City Royals Sunday afternoon at the Coliseum.
With former Stanford alum Kris Bubic making his first start back in the bay area, Oakland didn’t waste much time extending a rude welcome home. Matt Chapman, the second batter of the game, gave the A’s an early 1-0 lead with a homer to left-center, his second blast in two days. After the Royals tied the score in their next at bat, an Elvis Andrus double and Mark Canha single put Oakland back up 3-1 after two.
Bubic (1-2, 4.01) also got taken deep by Olson in the third and the fifth, exiting after 4.2 innings having allowed five earned runs on seven hits while striking out five. A’s starter Chris Bassitt settled down after a 40-pitch first inning to make it into the sixth inning and record his seventh victory of the season.
Yusmeiro Petit survived serving up a long home run to Carlos Santana in the seventh to record a four-out hold before Lance Diekman and Lou Trivino each pitched scoreless frames to help earn the victory, with Trivino picking up his tenth save.
Carlos Santana is greeted by Salvador Perez after homering in the seventh inning of the Royals 6-3 loss to the A’s Sunday afternoon in Oakland.
Asked about Olson’s power outburst, Bassitt said “What he’s doing now is not a surprise to anyone in the room. He’s literally an MVP candidate, or should be, every single year. Oly is no doubt an All-Star. I don’t know what else you can really say. A Gold Glove first baseman that will hit for average and home runs. I don’t know what else you could possibly want.”
Bassitt added, “Any time you have Chappy and Oly going at the same time, I do not want to face this lineup. We are blessed to have the corner infielders we have. Both are world-class and work hard. Their greatness is so boring, because it’s just every day. There’s very few people in the world who can do what they do. I’m very thankful to be their teammate and not going up against them.”
The win raised the A’s record to a season-high 13 games over .500 (40-27) and helped maintain their two game lead in the AL West over the Houston Astros.
The Los Angeles Angels return to Oakland for the second time in two weeks tomorrow for a three game series. Sean Manaea (5-2, 3.09), who comes in not have allowed a run in his last 15 innings pitched is scheduled to face Dylan Bundy (1-6, 6.16) in the opener with the first pitch scheduled for 6:40PM.
GAME NOTES:
The A’s now have a 9-2 record in June, tying the Milwaukee Brewers and Angels for the best in the majors.
Sunday was the 18th time Chapman and Olson have homered in the same game. The A’s have a record of 16-2 in those contests.
The win improved the A’s record to 12-2 against the AL Central this season.
