Soderstrom, A's gain valuable experience in close win vs. playoff hopeful

BOSTON -- When Athletics manager Mark Kotsay put out Tuesday’s lineup for the series opener at Fenway Park, Tyler Soderstrom’s name was left off for the fourth straight time.

The outfielder missed the entirety of the Athletics’ three-game series against the Reds after experiencing groin tightness, but he was available off the bench against the Red Sox after “feeling great” following his pregame running progression.

With the Athletics down 1-0 with two outs in the sixth inning, Soderstrom entered as a pinch-hitter and sent a 3-2 fastball from Red Sox reliever Greg Weissert off the Green Monster in left field for a game-tying RBI double. Soderstrom then came around to score the winning run on an RBI single from third baseman Brett Harris in a 2-1 victory over Boston to extend the Athletics’ win streak to a season-high five games.

“It's great to have Tyler back,” Kotsay said. “This kid has been unbelievable this season. Up until the Reds series, I think he played just about every game. So he continues to develop. He's continuing to impress in all facets of the game, and that at-bat tonight … to come into that type of at-bat, stay with his approach, get a fastball up and drive it off the Monster shows a lot of maturity.”

Soderstrom has played in 147 of the A’s 150 games this year, more than doubling his playing time from last year (61 games). With your first full big league season comes the expectation that there will be some wear and tear. Fortunately for Soderstrom, that reality didn’t hit until the middle of September.

Soderstrom first felt the tightness in his groin in the series finale of the A’s home set against the Red Sox on Sept. 10, then he sat for the next three games to make sure the injury didn’t worsen.

“These seasons are long, and for young players, they're starting to realize what it feels like to play through September, what it feels like to play a schedule that is pretty grinding and grueling,” Kotsay said. “And it's going to give a little ... dose of reality that if you want to play in October, we have to continue playing in September.”

Though some of his teammates, like AL Rookie of the Year frontrunner Nick Kurtz, are often stealing headlines with feats like a 493-foot homer, Soderstrom is quietly leading the Athletics with 89 RBIs, and his .278 batting average is third on the team among regulars, behind Jacob Wilson and Kurtz. In his last 37 games, the 23-year-old is hitting .349 with a .974 OPS.

“I've just kind of stuck with my approach all year,” Soderstrom said. “Can go bad sometimes, [but] just kind of stay even-keeled, and try and get out of the lows as fast as you can and spread highs for as long as you can.”

And the Athletics are doing just that. Tuesday’s win gave the A’s an American League-best 29-18 record since July 24. Over the last 30 days, the Athletics’ offense is towards the top in the Majors in multiple offensive categories, including fifth in OPS (.785) and slugging (.458) and tied for sixth in homers (40).

Though the Athletics’ season will end before the calendar flips over to October, series against playoff-hopeful teams like Boston are pivotal for young players like Soderstrom.

“I know playoff baseball or close to playoff baseball in Boston -- these games are really important,” said Kotsay, who spent parts of two seasons with the Red Sox as a player from 2008-09. “The support they're going to get for these next three games, in some way, will represent that type of atmosphere. But for our young guys, this will be a good challenge for them to go through a pretty electric environment that they haven't been in yet.”