Olson slams 2 homers; Fiers hot

ANAHEIM – When they make a documentary about baseball in 2019, titled “Whiff Or Wallop,” it will feature some fun video footage from Friday night’s A’sAngels game.

While his fellow A’s batsmen were striking out at a furious rate, Matt Olson launchangled and exitvelo’d the A’s to an important 72 win.

The big first baseman hit a tworun homer in the first inning and a threerun dinger in the third, both with two out. He hit a solo homer the previous evening.

Meanwhile, through the first four innings, A’s batters struck out nine times.

Like Babe Ruth once said, “I always swing hard, in case I hit something.”

Olson swung hard again in the sixth inning and hit another ball into the seats in right field, but 30 feet foul.

Olson messed up the modernball strategy of Angels’ manager Brad Ausmus, who went with reliever Noe Ramirez to open the game. Olsen tagged Ramirez, then got “starter” Felix Pena in the third. DH Mark Canha joined the A’s homer fun in the seventh with a twoout, tworun blast.

It was a big win for the A’s.

Had Oakland lost, the suddenly healthy and surging Angels would have leapfrogged over the A’s in the standings, by percentage points, pushing the A’s further from wildcard land.

And it was a statement game for the A’s, who were beaten by the long ball the previous evening, and are staking their claim as a team that can homer with the best of ‘em.

“It’s definitely been our MO the past couple years,” Olson said. “Not to say we can’t produce runs other ways, but we’ve got guys who can do some damage and score runs that way.”

In their last 42 games, the A’s have slugged 80 home runs. Clearly this is their calling card, and to that end it’s helpful that Olson has been heating up. In his last 23 games he is batting .305, with nine homers, 20 RBIs and 10 walks.

In this game the A’s were without Khris Davis, who leads the league’s DHs with 16 homers. He sat out after being hit by a pitch in the left hand Thursday.

“He was having trouble gripping the bat, so we’ll give him the night off,” manager Bob Melvin said before the game.

Homers alone won’t get you to the top, or to the playoffs. You’ve got to have some pitching, and Friday the A’s had a lot of that, too.

Mike Fiers, one of baseball’s hottest starters, threw six and twothirds super innings against the Angels, who are at full strength and high confidence with the return of key injured players.

Fiers kept the bigswinging Angels offbalance by mixing his pitches, struck out the side in the sixth, and walked just one. In his last 10 starts, going back to his nohitter May 7, Fiers is 60 and has gone a minimum of six innings. Opponents are hitting .176 against him during that stretch, and that might be enough to rate him some AllStar love.

“He always has a game plan,” Melvin said of Fiers before the game. “Got off to a slow start (23 in his first eight starts). . . Here recently, he’s been on quite a roll. Fourpitch mix, has a bit of a cutter he hasn’t used in the past, as well.”

Fiers likes to get ahead in the count, so he tended to throw fastballs early, but hitters started looking for those, so Fiers started mixing in the cutter early.

“I think they’re trying to get that firstpitch fastball,” Fiers said, “get a good pitch to hit early on, because they know I don’t give in. . .(I’m) using the cutter to play off the fastball. If they’re going to swing early, it might not be a fastball. Trying to keep them off balance, keep them honest, not just all in on one pitch.”

It’s an effective plan. The A’s hitters have a plan, too, and it involves hitting a lot of home runs, and Friday it worked out well.

John McCoy / Getty Images Matt Olson (right) is congratulated by Jurickson Profar after Olson’s thirdinning home run, his 16th of the season.