If Matt Olson ever finds himself in Henderson, Nev., there is a free beer or several waiting for him at Lovelady Brewing Company.
Richard Lovelady, who is from Castro Valley, owns and operates the brewery with his three brothers and Friday, in the A’s season opener, Lovelady’s cardboard cutout was the first to “catch” a ball. Olson’s foul early in the game smacked the facsimile Lovelady, wearing an A’s shirt and a Las Vegas Knights mask — and several innings later, Olson belted a walkoff grand slam in the 10th to beat the Angels.
Lovelady’s devotion to the A’s goes back a ways — his first-ever game was at the Coliseum in 1973, when he was 5. But he didn’t even know he had a cutout in the Foul Ball Zone. Some buddies got it for him, knowing his A’s fandom, so he was delighted to learn that $81 will be donated to the A’s Community Fund in his name — and that he’ll be getting the ball. The only other ball he’s ever collected at a game was a homer that left Wrigley Field and wound up on Waveland Avenue, where Lovelady picked it up.
“I’ve gone to probably 100 games and I’ve never gotten one in the stadium before,” said Lovelady, who said he’s been to all but seven big-league parks. “And I’m excited about Olson — I think he has the ability to be one of the best A’s first basemen ever.”
Lovelady said his business, like most others during the pandemic, is suffering, but A’s president Dave Kaval’s tweet that his cutout was the first ever to earn a foul ball at the Coliseum made his day, and Lovelady said he plans to display the ball proudly at the brewery.
Smith gets second win: Burch Smith, the first man on in relief for the A’s on Sunday, had a 1-2-3 seven-pitch fifth inning and got some help from center fielder Ramón Laureano, who raced in and slid to grab a dying liner by Mike Trout, ending the inning.
Laureano is playing deeper this year, and manager Bob Melvin noted that the tendency with Trout is to break back, not in, which leaves Trout with a lot of shallow singles.
“That’s a big step for him,” Melvin said of Laureano. “He read that really well, and center field that time of day, the sun’s right in his face. That was a tougher play than it looked.”
Smith, acquired from the Giants for cash in the spring, added a scoreless sixth, too, and he’s yet to allow a run in three innings. Working in middle relief, he already has two wins — the most in the majors. Joakim Soria, the A’s sixth and final pitcher, earned the save with a scoreless ninth.
“He seems like he’s very comfortable out there,” Melvin said. “He was throwing the ball down in the zone more than he showed the first time out, showing some different looks.”
Susan Slusser covers the A’s for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser
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July 28, 2020 at 06:45AM
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