The Athletics have quickly come to learn that the ball flies at Las Vegas Ballpark unlike anywhere else they’ve played, and their built-to-slug lineup is responding with a power display for the ages. One night after mashing seven home runs in the opener of the Las Vegas Series, the A’s bounced back from a wild extra-inning loss by bashing another five homers in Tuesday night’s 7-5 victory over the Brewers. With a total of 12 home runs through the first two of six games they will play at Las Vegas Ballpark, the A’s tied the franchise record for most homers over a two-game span. Before Tuesday, the last time the A’s homered 12 times over two games was nearly three decades ago, from June 25-27, 1996. Nick Kurtz and Tyler Soderstrom, both of whom notched two-homer games on Monday, each slugged homers for an encore. Kurtz’s solo shot in the first was his 15th of the year and the reigning AL Rookie of the Year’s fourth over the last three days. Soderstrom’s two-run blast in the fifth, meanwhile, was his 11th of the season and third in the last two days. “It’s really a battle of who can string together big innings and get more zeros,” Kurtz said. “That’s the name of the game this week. You put the ball in the air, there’s a good chance it could go. The pitchers have a really hard job this week, so as an offense, we have to pick them up. We’ve done a good job of that the last two days.” Jonah Heim and Zack Gelof also went deep for the second straight night, both contributing solo homers. Joining the power party for the first time this week, and in his career, was Henry Bolte. The A’s No. 5 prospect pulverized a 1-1 changeup low in the zone from Brewers starter Robert Gasser, sending his first Major League home run well beyond the pool in right-center and nearly out of the stadium entirely for a two-run laser. “That was awesome,” Kurtz said of Bolte’s dinger. “Super happy for him. He’s put together great at-bats since he’s been up, so it was really fun to see him connect on one. That was a real one, too.” Called up to the big leagues on May 12, Bolte took note of this impending series at the ballpark he called home while playing for Triple-A Las Vegas and joked with teammates that his first homer would happen in Las Vegas. It turns out that premonition was right all along.
