Oakland @ Seattle preview
T-Mobile Park
Last Meeting ( Jul 22, 2021 ) Oakland 4, Seattle 1
In the past, Matt Olson going up against an All-Star left-hander might have been seen as a bit of a mismatch.
That's no longer the case.
Olson, the Oakland Athletics' left-handed-hitting first baseman, has improved drastically against lefties this season.
He will get another chance to show that Friday night when the visiting Athletics go up against Seattle left-hander Yusei Kikuchi (6-5, 3.92 ERA), the Mariners' lone All-Star representative.
Before this season, Olson had a career .229 average against lefties, and he batted just .208 versus southpaws last season.
So far this year, he is hitting .302 against left-handers with a 1.036 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, the seventh-best mark in the majors and second to the Los Angeles Dodgers' Max Muncy among players who bat left-handed.
"It doesn't matter right, left or indifferent right now," A's manager Bob Melvin said. "That's just kind of what he's evolved to."
Melvin credited Olson's approach.
"He's seeing the ball a little bit longer, letting it travel a little bit more, hitting balls to the other field -- he's just getting a cleaner look at the baseball for a longer period of time," Melvin said.
The biggest difference has come against fastballs.
"I think in the past, they've been able to beat him with fastballs, and now they realize with the adjustments he's made, they can't," A's hitting coach Darren Bush said. "He's adjusted to where he's on the fastball, so they have to try to do different things to get him to expand the zone. It's the back and forth."
Olson went 0-for-3 with a walk and a sacrifice fly Thursday as the A's won the series opener at Seattle, 4-1.
Kikuchi, who didn't pitch in the All-Star Game because he wasn't feeling well after being placed on the coronavirus injured list, is coming off his worst start of the season. In a 9-4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, he allowed seven runs on nine hits in five innings. Kikuchi struck out seven and walked one.
"It's not what we're used to seeing from Yusei, and he was so good in the first half," Mariners manager Scott Servais said. "He'll get back there. I have no problem with that and I feel very confident in that, but (against the Angels) he struggled."
Kikuchi suggested through a translator that he might be experiencing "fatigue going into the summer months."
He said, "One of my main focuses is to get the velocity back up on my fastball."
Kikuchi is 1-2 with a 2.54 ERA in seven career starts against Oakland. His lone victory came May 24 at Oakland in a 4-2 decision. He had a shutout through six innings, and he wound up charged with one run on four hits over six-plus innings while walking two and striking out three.
The A's are scheduled to start right-hander Frankie Montas (8-8, 4.33), who is 2-2 with a 3.31 ERA in eight career appearances against Seattle, including five starts.
Montas took the loss in the May 24 game despite recording a season-high 11 strikeouts. He gave up four runs on six hits, including two home runs, and three walks in six innings.
--Field Level Media