Billy Butler was all smiles after his triple against the Rockies. (Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports)
OAKLAND, Calif. — Oakland Athletics’ designated hitter Billy Butler stands 6-foot 1 and weighs 240 pounds. His nickname is Country Breakfast. He’s built for power, not speed, and going into Wednesday afternoon’s game against Colorado, he had exactly four triples in 4,596 career at-bats.
Now he’s got five
Butler hit a leadoff triple in the second inning of Oakland’s 4-1 victory against Colorado. Then tagged up and scored on a shallow fly ball to left field, showing off his wheels again.
“That was impressive,” said speedy A’s center fielder Billy Burns, who had a triple, a double and scored two runs. “Anytime a guy like that just starts trucking around the bases, it gets you excited. So it was fun to see.
“When he tagged up, that’s just a classic speedster right there. That whole at-bat and scoring I was pumped up. I gave him a big high-five when he scored.”
Of course Butler needed help from Rockies left fielder Rafael Ynoa on both the triple and the run. Butler hit a deep line drive and Ynoa crashed into the left field wall while trying to catch it. Ynoa stayed on the ground and Butler kept running as the ball caromed away. Butler scored easily on Eric Sogard’s sacrifice fly when Ynoa’s throw barely got back to the infield.
“I was a little out of breath,” Butler said of his triple. “The only way I’m getting a triple — I’m glad he’s all right — is if he goes down. Burnsie had a triple. He was definitely a whole base ahead of me. The only thing I thought about when I got that triple was it took away from my doubles total.”
The double was Butler’s first since Aug. 9, 2012, at Baltimore for the Kansas City Royals.
A’s right-hander Jesse Hahn, who allowed one run over six innings for his sixth win, said the sight of Butler tripling was “funny” and “awesome.”
“Good for him,” Hahn said. “That’s awesome. That put us in a great spot and because of that we were able to score a run.”
