LOS ANGELES -- Through the first 19 games of this season, it seemed like Tyler Soderstrom couldn’t stop hitting home runs, even if he tried.
Through his first 73 at-bats, the 23-year-old had cranked nine home runs, while amassing a .712 slugging percentage and 1.095 OPS. During that stretch, the 2020 first-round pick had three two-homer games, including Opening Day, becoming the fifth (and youngest) player with three multi-homer games in his team’s first 17 games of a season. His ninth blast came April 17 against the White Sox, the most in MLB at the time.
Then, nothing.
Over the subsequent 23 games, Soderstrom had only five extra-base hits, all doubles. He opened this week’s series at Dodger Stadium with an 0-for-5 performance Tuesday, striking out four times as the only A’s batter not to record a hit in an 11-1 offensive onslaught. He punched out again in his first at-bat Wednesday.
But in the top of the third, facing Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Soderstrom capitalized on a first-pitch curveball over the middle of the plate, sending it 414 feet for his 10th home run of the season. The blast left his bat at 108 mph, per Statcast, and tied the game at 2.
The contest remained close until the eighth, when the Dodgers tagged reliever Tyler Ferguson for five runs to hand the A’s a 9-3 loss. Rookie starter Gunnar Hoglund had struck out five Dodgers across 5 1/3 innings, and was ultimately responsible for four earned runs: three solo shots and an inherited runner that scored when Hogan Harris took over in the sixth.
“Up until the eighth inning, this was a baseball game,” said manager Mark Kotsay. “Obviously the result at the end, the 9-3 score, makes it look like a really lopsided game, but outside of that one inning, I thought we were in this ballgame, we had a chance to win.”
Despite the loss, Wednesday was an important turnaround game for Soderstrom. It had been 89 at-bats since his last home run, a career high.
“Yeah, feels great,” Soderstrom said. “Obviously a tough night last night, and then started off the game with another punchie, and kind of had to go into a different mindset, wipe it, and just kind of keep going.”
Soderstrom said he had watched film on Yamamoto to get a sense of the righty’s approach, but he didn’t stray from his own routine.
“You’ve just got to keep your confidence,” he said. “You can’t get too down on yourself. This game is really hard. Great pitcher out there, and just have to stick with what I do, and it worked out.”
In addition to the home run, Soderstrom would hit a double in the top of the eighth, a line drive to left field with a 102.9 mph exit velocity. He advanced to third on a Brent Rooker groundout, but the A’s couldn’t bring him in as the tying run. And even his infield groundout in the fifth came off the bat at 106.3 mph.
Soderstrom’s 2-for-4 night brought his batting average up to .285, second on the team only to rookie Jacob Wilson, whose .354 clip is second in the American League behind Aaron Judge (.412).
Kotsay commended his young slugger for overcoming Tuesday’s 0-fer.
“Sodie’s still taking good at-bats,” Kotsay said. “The home runs came in a hurry in April, and he hadn’t hit one in awhile. But this kid … last night was a tough night, he had four strikeouts, goes up the first at-bat, has another strikeout.
“Then he obviously stays with his plan, and gets a ball up in the zone and drives it out to center field, hits another ball in the gap. So that’s showing a lot of maturity in his mindset, not allowing the failure to take a hold of him, and basically stay in the negative. So I felt good about his at-bats tonight.”
Soderstrom said he had viewed 10 home runs as a benchmark goal. Does that mean another home run batch is on its way?
“You know, I hope,” Soderstrom said. “I’ve been kind of saying once I get to 10, got to break through to get to double digits and we’ll be good to go. So hopefully just keep going and find that power, for sure.”