WEST SACRAMENTO -- Warning to the rest of the league: Nick Kurtz is officially on a heater.
There was a sense that Kurtz was on the brink of a power surge when he blasted an opposite-field grand slam on Wednesday, as crushing homers the other way is usually a telltale sign that the Athletics slugger is feeling it from a power perspective.
Two days later, Kurtz launched a home run for a third consecutive day, this time a Statcast-projected 417-foot three-run blast to left-center in the fifth inning off Giants starter Tyler Mahle that put the A’s ahead for good in a 5-2 win at Sutter Health Park.
The homer also extended Kurtz’s on-base streak to a Major League-best 38 games. That stands as the fourth-longest single-season on-base streak in A’s history over the past 40 years, trailing only Jason Giambi (39 in 1997 and 1998) and Mark McGwire (48 in 1996).