Olson reaches career milestone on dicey night vs. Royals

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Matt Olson was greeted with a bucket of ice poured down his back thanks to his teammates at Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday night. It was a celebration for the 27-year-old. 

It was another close one, but the Athletics managed to pull off a 12-10 win over the Kansas City Royals. Their 18 hits were a season-high, and Olson accomplished a career-first. 

The two-time Gold Glove Award winner reached 101 RBI on the season, the first time for him, which came on his 35th home run.

“One hundred RBI is -- I mean -- that’s a real milestone,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said after the game. “And you know these are elite guys, run producers, home run hitters. He’s got 35 home runs and you 100 RBIs over, and you know, still have some time left. So it’s just -- he’s becoming one of the better players in the game and a guy that you really rely on to know in big runs for you.”

A’s infielder Josh Harrison has been in the league for 11 years and hasn’t kept up with Olson that much. He spent the majority of his career in the NL so that makes sense, but from what he sees from Olson, he’s become quite impressed.

“Never really got a chance to keep up with him,” Harrison said. “Obviously, knew who he was just based off of, you know, seeing the highlights, but never got a chance to check. I’ll go on the record saying this. You don’t have to tell him, you can tell him, you can tell the world, I think he’s arguably, quote, unquote, possibly the best first baseman in the league. Top three, easily.”

Harrison said that Olson’s 35 homers and 100-plus RBI speak volumes as to the player Olson is, especially with a couple of weeks left in the season. 

Olson earned his first career All-Star selection this season, adding to a list of accomplishments that will continue to grow as he flourishes. And that appears to be the plan. 

The A’s, however, still have a lot of work to do if they want to even think about making a playoff appearance. Depending on who you ask, the team is looking at a two percent chance of making it. The team continues to play back-and-forth with the AL Wild Card standings that currently are sharing honors with the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays.

“The main thing is stay the course and showing up every day and control what you can control,” Harrison said. “Baseball is a game of ebbs and flows. You just got to ‘ride the wave,’ I mean, no pun intended.”

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It won’t be easy. 

“Everywhere from here on out is crucial,” Harrison said. “Every game you know, regardless of what’s happened in the past, like you said, things haven’t gone our way in the last few games, and that’s a part of baseball.”

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