OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Oakland’s slugging Matts have a running joke how one is usually hot when the other’s not.
Lately, both are driving the ball — and they combined for three home runs Sunday.
Matt Olson homered twice and Matt Chapman also connected, Chris Bassitt escaped a scary line drive to win his seventh straight decision, and the Oakland Athletics powered past the Kansas City Royals 6-3.
Olson hit solo shots in the third and fifth for his second two-homer game this season and 10th of his career. Chapman homered in the first to back Bassitt (7-2).
“We actually joke about it a pretty good bit that when one’s hitting the other one never does,” Olson said. “It’s nice to get a few games where we’re both doing stuff. We honestly don’t actually put weight into that but it seems like it sometimes. It’s definitely good to sync up a little bit.”
Elvis Andrus added an RBI double in the second and Mark Canha hit a run-scoring single two batters later against Kris Bubic (1-2).
Bassitt had a scare in the second when Nicky Lopez’s screaming liner glanced off his back side for an RBI single. The pitcher, clearly shaken, went face down in the grass with his arms spread for several moments as athletic trainer Nick Paparesta and manager Bob Melvin scurried to check on him, but Bassitt stayed in the game.
“It hit me in the perfect spot. That may sound weird,” Bassitt said. “It didn’t affect me at all.”
The hit by Lopez loaded the bases, but Bassitt regrouped and got Whit Merrifield on a called third strike to escape further damage.
Bassitt allowed two earned runs on five hits with five strikeouts, three walks — one intentional — and two hit batters over 5 2/3 innings. He is unbeaten since losing his initial two starts on April 1 and 6.
“I’m not here to win a Cy Young, I’m not here to be an All-Star, I’m here to win a World Series,” Bassitt said.
Just when the A’s finally got a day devoid of wind during an especially blustery June stretch for the Bay Area, Chapman’s home run ball left the bat at 103.1 mph and traveled 384 feet. Then Olson cleared the fences twice.
Bubic had five more strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings to give him has 27 in 30 innings as a starter.
Carlos Santana homered in the seventh for Kansas City, which still missed timely hits with runners on base.
“Just one of those that the big hit kind of alluded us,” manager Mike Matheny said. “We had a couple guys come up big but nobody on.”
