Chapman makes like AllStar with 6 RBIs
ANAHEIM — There’s an old baseball saying, or there should be: AllStars gonna AllStar.
In this case, Matt Chapman. Sunday, a few minutes before it was announced on national TV that he had been voted to the American League AllStar team, Chapman lasered a threerun homer to right field, the highlight of the A’s 123 win over the Angels.
Chapman learned an hour before the game that his player peers voted him as a reserve third baseman for the A.L. squad. He said he expects to feel like a “little kid in a candy store” when he walks into the AllStar clubhouse, but Chapman isn’t waiting until July 9 in Cleveland to sugar up.
Along with his homer, Chapman had a triple and a basesloaded double, and his first sixRBI game. His 21 homers are only three fewer than he hit all last year in his first full majorleague season.
Chapman, about as lowkey as a player can be without being nokey, said the thrill of making the AllStar team was similar to the thrill of being called up to the big leagues.
After the past two games, Chapman might get called up to a higher league. He hit a threerun homer Saturday night, and said he’s seeing the ball well and making adjustments to the way opposing pitchers are adjusting to him. Checkmate.
Chapman’s got the upper hand and the AllStar cred, and the A’s are lovin’ it.
His homer Sunday came with one out and runners on second and third.
“I got to two strikes,” Chapman said, “and I was just trying to choke up, battle, just use the whole field and make sure I got that run in.”
When you can slap oppositefield home runs, you are an AllStar.
The A’s dropped the series opener but won the next three, leaving the land of Disney with a fourgame lead over the Angels, and trailing the Rangers by only a halfgame in the race for the second A.L. wildcard spot.
Sunday the A’s had to survive a challenge from Angel AllStars. Firsttime AllStar Tommy LaStella had two hits and scored a run, and eighttime AllStar Mike Trout had a chance to tie the game in the seventh, with two on. But reliever Joakim Soria dropped a 32 slider into the top of the zone, freezing Trout.
The win gave the A’s a 51 trip and put them seven games over .500.
The Angels opened the series by welcoming back recovered stars Andrelton Simmons and Justin Upton but over the weekend the Angels’ hitters ran into a bit of a buzz saw against A’s starters Mike Fiers, Brett Anderson and Chris Bassitt. Bassitt gave up three runs Sunday in 52⁄3 innings, including a solo homer by Shohei Ohtani, who hit a solo blast later off Aaron Brooks.
Chapman’s homer gave the A’s seven big flies in the fourgame series, and 82 in their past 44 games, after they hit just 51 in the season’s first 42 games.