A’s Batters Finding Bliss The Other Way

You think of Matt Olson as a “dead pull hitter” and teams shift accordingly. Yet Olson is very much alive, and several recent at bats have shown an encouraging ability to hit the ball with authority to the opposite field.

Specifically, Olson beat the shift with an RBI single (off of Lucas Giolito) in his first at bat of game 2. Later, he was terribly unlucky hitting a frozen rope to the left side against the LHP Xavier Cedeño that would have tied the game had Tim Anderson not happened to be right there. Today, Olson took a fastball away from Chris Volstad and launched it into the LF bleachers.

There is multiple significance to Olson’s ability to hit the ball hard to the left side. As shown in…