ATLANTA -- Matt Olson will likely never come close to matching Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games streak of 2,130. But given he’s baseball’s current Iron Man, it was fitting that the Braves' first baseman shined as the baseball world celebrated the iconic Yankees legend.
In fact, Olson might have received some help from the great Iron Horse when he hit a go-ahead home run in the sixth inning of the Braves’ 4-3 win over the Blue Jays on Tuesday night at Truist Park.
Why? Well, the solo shot had a 49-degree launch angle, the highest on a home run this season. Just three over-the-fence homers have had a higher launch angle since Statcast began collecting this data in 2015.
So what would be the Gehrig influence? Well, the sky-high shot was blown out 17 feet and pushed 29 feet to the right, per Statcast.
Olson certainly knew that he received some assistance with the wind-aided home run. When he hit the ball, he put his head down, seemingly thinking he had likely flown out to right field.
Olson’s game-winning shot off Kevin Gausman came three innings after he had doubled and scored on Ozzie Albies’ two-out RBI single. The two extra-base hits backed a solid effort from Bryce Elder, who allowed three earned runs over 6 2/3 innings.
All big league players wore a No. 4 patch on their jerseys on Tuesday to help MLB celebrate the sixth annual Lou Gehrig Day. The Yankees Hall of Famer began his legendary "Iron Horse" consecutive game streak on June 1, 1925. He passed from ALS complications on this same date 16 years later.
Gehrig played 2,130 consecutive games, a number only surpassed by Cal Ripken’s streak of 2,632 games. Olson holds the current longest streak, having played 843 consecutive games, dating back to May 2, 2021, exactly one month before the first Lou Gehrig Day was celebrated.
Olson’s current streak ranks ninth on the all-time list. Barring any postponements, he’ll pass Stan Musial (895 games) on Aug. 2 and stand alone with the eighth-longest streak.