WEST SACRAMENTO – Henry Bolte was born in 2003, the same year Rickey Henderson played his final season in the big leagues.
Though he was far too young to watch Henderson live, Bolte knew all about the legendary speedster and his greatness while growing up as an Athletics fan in Palo Alto. In fact, shortly after signing his first professional contract with the A’s in 2022, Bolte (sort of) compared his style of play to the Hall of Famer.
“I like to go out and put pressure on the other team,” Bolte said back in ‘22. “I’m a big A’s guy, so, like, Rickey Henderson stealing bases all the time. I might not be as fast as him. He’s a little special. But I like playing that type of way.”
Four years after his signing day, Bolte produced a performance in Monday’s 6-5 walk-off victory over the Blue Jays at Sutter Health Park that an A’s player hadn’t touched since the Man of Steal himself.
After stealing three bases in the game’s first three innings, Bolte slugged a solo home run over the right-field wall off Toronto starter Dylan Cease in the fifth. Before him, the previous A’s player with a homer and three-plus stolen bases in a game? That would be Henderson, who homered and swiped four bags on Oct. 5, 1991.
“Unbelievable company,” Bolte said. “Growing up an A’s fan, meeting Rickey and getting to spend some time with him and just always being a fan of his, it’s an honor to be mentioned in the same breath as him with that stat. Super cool, for sure.”
Henderson is considered the greatest base stealer of all-time. Now leading all AL rookies with 19 stolen bases, Bolte has a case as the current fastest man in baseball. Per Statcast, the 23-year-old rookie’s average sprint speed of 30.5 feet per second is tied for the MLB lead.
Bolte was part of an all-out ground attack by the A’s that ran wild all night on Cease. He swiped second base in the first after drawing a leadoff walk, then swiped second and third in the third before dashing home on a grounder hit by Zack Gelof with a nifty head-first slide to evade a tag by catcher Alejandro Kirk at the plate.
Not long after Gelof reached on that fielder’s choice, he, too, stole second and third. It was the first time the A’s have stolen four bases in an inning since stealing four in the sixth inning against the Mariners on Sept. 8, 2010, and their five total stolen bases as a team were the most in their first three innings of a game since swiping five on June 12, 1990, against the Rangers.
The A’s are not a team that steals many bases, ranking near the bottom third of the Majors in that category. Going up against an AL Cy Young candidate in Cease, however, the A’s felt like their best chance to generate some offense might come by exploiting his slow times to the plate – the right-hander leads all MLB pitchers with 31 stolen bases allowed.
“When you’re facing a guy that’s elite like Cease and he’s got one area of weakness that you can attack, if you have speed, you have to go for it,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “That was the mindset we took into the game tonight when we game-planned. If we got on, we were going to try to steal bases and create some offense. With these two guys at the top – Bolte and Gelof – both with the ability to steal bases, you can see the impact it can have in a game.”
Reaching base in all five plate appearances, Bolte had his fingerprints all over this one.
After the A’s lost the lead in the top of the ninth as Hogan Harris surrendered a game-tying homer to Andrés Giménez, a two-out rally was keyed by an eight-pitch walk by Bolte – his third walk of the night – to load the bases for Jeff McNeil, who ended the game with a walk-off infield single off Louis Varland.
“He’s got the ability to hit it out anywhere,” Kotsay said of Bolte. “We always talk about his tools. The power is a tool that will come when he elevates the baseball more consistently. But the walks were equally as impressive and an area that he continues to improve in.”