The A's walked off the Milwaukee Brewers in the 10th inning Tuesday, and slugger Matt Olson walked out of the batter's box after crushing a mammoth 403-foot home run to seal Oakland's 3-2 win.
Olson stepped to the plate with Brewers All-Star reliever Josh Hader on the mound. Hader had only allowed nine home runs all season -- and none since June 1 -- before Tuesday, and he needed two more outs to send the game to the 11th inning.
But Olson had other ideas, blasting the first pitch he saw -- a 96 MPH fastball -- into deep center field for his 22nd dinger of the season.
Another walk-off win for the A's 🙌🏼 pic.twitter.com/ljf0vTz642— A's on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) July 31, 2019
The A's took a half-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL's second wild-card spot thanks to Tuesday's win. It was also their third straight victory, and Oakland improved to 3-2 on its nine-game homestand.
The Brewers tied the game on a solo homer from Eric Thames in the top of the ninth, just half an inning after slumping slugger Khris Davis gave the A's a 2-1 lead with his first home run since June 18.
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Davis with the tiebreaker 💪🏼 pic.twitter.com/DJ6m94Npgr— A's on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) July 31, 2019
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Davis had not hit in a home run in his previous 29 games, and that total was good for nearly one-third of his entire 2019 campaign entering Tuesday. By contrast, Olson went five games between his 21st and 22nd home runs of the season.
Olson is slashing .281/.354/.528 in July, and Davis finished Tuesday with his first three-hit game since May 17. A's manager Bob Melvin theorized that Davis needed just one home run to open the floodgates, and Davis heating up alongside an on-fire Olson would be good news for Oakland in its playoff push.