With another loss to Mariners, Oakland A’s do something they haven’t in 10 years
Oakland Athletics lose 11 straight to Seattle Mariners as postseason hopes flicker
The Oakland A’s did something they hadn’t in 10 years.
Their 4-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night at T-Mobile Park was their 11th straight loss to their AL West foe. Not since losing 11 straight to the New York Yankees from July 5 2010 to July 22, 2011 had the A’s lost 11 straight to a single opponent.
“Going into this year, I don’t know how many people on either team would have said the Mariners are better than us, but the game is proving otherwise,”A’s starter Chris Bassitt said.
It’s an historic losing streak woven into the fabric of a disappointing collapse for the A’s in August and September. While the Mariners have ridden that streak to the wild card’s doorstep, the A’s sit well behind the eight ball, 3.5 games back of the second wild card with four games to play. They could be eliminated from postseason contention as early as Wednesday with a loss.
After back-to-back 97-win seasons in 2018 and 2019, followed by a division crown in a shortened 2020 season, it will be impossible for the A’s to reach 90 wins. They’re 85-73 with four games to play.
“It’s a massive disappointment, no doubt about it,” Bassitt said. “We expected to compete for a World Series and we fell way short. Going to have to basically reassess everything going forward. That’s just the way it is. It sucks.”
The A’s got on the board first against Tyler Anderson, who smothered them in his last outing in Oakland, on Chad Pinder’s solo blast to center field.
That one-run lead stood on shaky ground. Bassitt made his second start since returning from facial fracture surgery last week. With the five week layoff after his injury, Bassitt is ramping up similar to how he would in spring training, which means he could throw around 60 pitches on Tuesday. He threw 67 in 3 1/3 innings, leaving a walked runner on base as he departed for Yusmeiro Petit.
In his 77th appearance, Petit wasn’t his sharpest and gave up two hits, including Jake Fraley’s two-run single to give Seattle a 2-1 lead.
Bassitt worked out of jams in each of the three complete innings he pitched, including with the bases loaded in the first inning where center fielder Seth Brown threw J.P. Crawford out at home on a shallow sacrifice fly attempt. His mechanics were a little off and his cutter not as sharp as usual. He took one of the earned runs with three walks, three hits allowed.
Sergio Romo was an out away from two complete innings, but couldn’t escape a jam in the sixth inning. With runners on the corners, shortstop Josh Harrison made a great play to stop Tom Murphy’s ball, but his throw sailed past Matt Olson to score a third run to make it 3-1.
The A’s clawed back with a little luck against Mariners reliever Diego Castillo, who recorded an error on Mark Canha’s grounder and hit Sean Murphy with a pitch in the seventh inning. Tony Kemp’s single scored Canha to put Oakland within a run.
But Mitch Haniger, already with two home runs on Monday night, took that run back with a solo homer off Jake Diekman in the next inning.