Oakland A’s officially eliminated from postseason contention with 12th straight loss to Mariners

The defending American League West champions have been eliminated from postseason contention for the first time since 2017. A 4-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday night sealed the deal.

Now four games back of the Mariners in the wild card race with three games to play, the A’s will head to Houston to play a near meaningless series against their division rivals — who have yet to clinch the division with the Mariners surging. The A’s, though, finish the season 4-15 against the Mariners that includes a now 12-game losing streak against them. They haven’t dropped 12 straight to a single team since losing to the Angels in 12 straight from Sept. 18, 1996 to Sept. 17, 1997.

The last time the A’s lost more than 14 games to one team in one season occurred in 1964, when they went 2-16 against the Chicago White Sox.

History and disaster all came to a head in the sixth inning. Spliced between a comedy of errors that led to the Mariners taking their lead, Frankie Montas recorded his 206th strikeout of the season. That puts him second to Vida Blue for most strikeouts in a single season in Oakland A’s history. Blue’s record 301 strikeouts in 1971 stands untouched.

But in that inning, a Tony Kemp error on a fly ball put one aboard, then Josh Harrison booted a ground ball to put two on. Rookie Jerred Kelenic doubled off the wall in deep center-right field to score the pair. Both runs went unearned on Montas’ record. He finishes the regular season with a 3.37 ERA after going six innings with seven strikeouts, four hits allowed and one walk in his final start.

Kemp might’ve made a costly error, but he gave the A’s their first run with a solo home run off Mariners starter Logan Gilbert. Kelenic’s heroics gave the Mariners a one-run lead that Seth Brown erased with a solo home run off reliever Diego Castillo in the seventh inning.

In relief, Andrew Chafin issued a leadoff walk that came to bite with a J.P. Crawford single to put runners on the corners and Ty France sacrifice fly. Abraham Toro’s solo home run off Sergio Romo in the eighth added a bit of insurance