The outfielder puts on an athletic show in win against Orioles
OAKLAND >> Matt Olson might have had only one good eye, but he was seeing the ball clearly in his return to the lineup. His contributions and Ramón Laureano’s standout eighth inning led to the A’s 7-5 win Sunday over the Baltimore Orioles, preventing a home sweep.
Laureano’s big inning provided a thrilling 20 minutes for the fans. The game tied 5-5, he robbed DJ Stewart of at least one go-ahead run with a leaping catch over at the top of the left-centerfield wall with a runner on second. He rode that momentum into a go-ahead opposite field, two-run home run in the bottom of the inning to secure the A’s final lead.
“That’s just taking over a game. That’s taking away two and giving two. I don’t know what the criteria is for WAR (win above replacement),” manager Bob Mel
vin said. “But if that’s not one WAR, I don’t know what is.”
Laureano wasn’t too impressed with his own standout inning.
“I’ve done that before,” he said when asked if he’s had an inning that tops his eighth inning.
His teammates were more generous.
“The guy’s a human highlight reel,” Sean Manaea said. “He’s unbelievable out there in center. Each time it just impresses you a little bit more than it already has, which is insane because the bar is already crazy high. It’s awesome.”
Laureano might’ve been the spark, but Olson kept the plate hot throughout his anticipated return. He went 3-for-5 with with a shift-beating single in his first at-bat that scored Laureano from first, with help from a pair of Orioles errors. Olson’s two-run home run gave the A’s a 4-2 lead in the third inning and he doubled in his third at-bat in a fruitless fifth inning.
Olson suffered a gruesome eye injury in the batting cages when a ball ricocheted off the L-screen off his eye on Thursday that kept him out of the lineup for the A’s last three games. He sported a black eye in his return.
“That is nothing compared to what it looked like a couple days ago,” Melvin said. “Even yesterday. You had to look hard to see any of his eyeball. Two days before, you couldn’t. When he sent me a message this morning, I was a little surprised. I thought we were going to wait at least one more day for him to play. But he sent me a message and said, ‘I’m in there.’
Olson checked all the boxes: He did well in pregame hitting and fielding.
With the A’s batting .185 with 19 walks and 15 runs scored over a dry sevengame stretch, Olson’s bat was much-needed injection to the lineup.
“A couple days ago he couldn’t open his eye,” Manaea said. “For him to come back and have a game like that, it’s pretty unbelievable. It’s crazy how fast it healed. It’s great having him back.”
Manaea broke his four start streak of allowing two-or-fewer runs, allowing four in five innings with five strikeouts and no walks issued. He allowed runs on Freddy Galvis’ RBI single in the second inning and Austin Hays’ solo home run. Trey Mancini’s tworun double in the fifth inning erased the lead gained on Olson’s home run.
“Overall it was not good,” Manaea said of his outing. “I think I got ahead of a lot of guys, but I wasn’t putting them away. If I did, it was taking a lot more pitches than it needed to. Getting 0-2, 1-2 and them working to full count or whatever. Just have to get better at throwing my pitches better.”
Against reliever Jake Diekman, Mancini gave the Orioles the lead in the seventh with a two-out RBI single. A costly error from Elvis Andrus on a potential double-play ball extended the inning early. It was the first run scored on Diekman’s watch in eight games, though the run was unearned.
While the A’s, particularly Olson, found some success against Orioles left-handed starter Bruce Zimmermann, they had trouble cracking a bullpen that entered the series finale with a fifthranked 2.89 ERA. The A’s found some light in the seventh when Matt Chapman turned on the jets to score from second on Jed Lowrie’s infield single, tying the game 5-5.
“Kots (third base coach Mark Kotsay) is on that too,” Melvin said. “So between the two of them it was a great play. Had to be aggressive in that situation. We were bogged down a bit early in the game and try to find a way to score.”