Olson strengthens ASG bid with 2-HR game

OAKLAND -- After Matt Olson notched a season-high four hits in Saturday’s victory, Matt Chapman used part of his postgame Zoom media session to make a pitch for the first baseman’s inclusion on this year’s American League roster for the All-Star Game.

One day later, Olson made his own strong case on the field.

Olson launched a pair of no-doubt solo blasts in the A’s 6-3 win over the Royals at the Coliseum. It was the 10th multi-home run performance of his career and his second of the season. After homering three times over the past two days, Olson’s 18 long balls are second-most in the AL, trailing only Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (21).

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Olson grew up often trying to emulate childhood idol Chipper Jones’ swing in his backyard as a kid in Atlanta. There’s no question he would love to follow in the eight-time All-Star’s footsteps with the first All-Star appearance of his own in this year’s Midsummer Classic at Coors Field. But the possible high individual honor takes a backseat to his focus on the team, which is now a season-high 13 games above .500 (40-27) and holds a two-game lead in the AL West.

“If anybody was sitting here and said they didn’t want to be an All-Star, I think they’d be lying,” Olson said. “I take it day by day. There’s a lot of baseball left. I’m not going to set my sights too far down the road and worry about stuff that is out of my control.”

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Both of Olson’s homers came off left-hander Kris Bubic. He first jumped on an 0-1 fastball left over the middle of the zone in the third, hammering it 106.9 mph off the bat and sending it just below the outfield suites in right-center a projected 427 feet, per Statcast. In his next at-bat, Olson took advantage of a 1-0 changeup left up and sent it a projected 422 feet to right.

As the Bay Area continues to heat up with the impending start of summer, so does Olson’s bat. Over his last 13 games, the 27-year-old first baseman is 19-for-46 (.413) with five homers and 16 RBIs. But the overall numbers have been impressive all year. After going 2-for-4 on Sunday, Olson ranks second among AL hitters in slugging percentage (.610) and OPS (.984).

A’s right-hander Chris Bassitt, who allowed two runs over 5 2/3 innings with five strikeouts to pick up his seventh win of the year, marveled at the eye-popping statistics Olson continues to pile up. Though he acknowledged it might be tough for the first baseman to get a starting All-Star nod given Guerrero’s astonishing numbers, he said he remains hopeful that Olson finds himself mingling with baseball’s elite players come July 13 in Denver.

“What he’s doing now is not a surprise to anyone in the room,” Bassitt said. “He’s literally an MVP candidate, or should be, every single year. Vlad Jr. is having an unbelievable year at first base, too. They’re going to have a lot of fun trying to figure out who starts first base in the All-Star Game.

“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.”

Olson’s monster day overshadowed what was another encouraging sign for Matt Chapman, who continues to emerge from an early-season slump. Smashing a solo shot in the first to give him homers in consecutive games for the first time since he hit four in three games between Aug. 8 and 10, 2020, the third baseman now has seven hits in his last three games and is 12-for-35 (.343) with eight RBIs over his last 10 contests.

Olson and Chapman have a long-running joke between them in the clubhouse -- when one Matt is on a hot streak, the other goes cold at the plate. But the two appear to be synced up at the moment. With both going deep in each of the last two games, they have now homered in the same game 18 times over their careers. In those 18 games, the A’s have a record of 16-2.

“Any time you have Chappy and Oly going at the same time, I do not want to face this lineup,” Bassitt said. “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.”