Five moments in which this Oakland A’s season turned sour
Postseason elimination is, essentially, just hours away for the Oakland A’s.
A season that began with so much promise — off winning an American League West crown, running it back with a group of proven talent and some young players eager to prove the hype — is ending in utter disappointment with a scarily uncertain future for the franchise in store.
What went wrong? With the postseason going on without the A’s for the first time in three seasons, the dust of this 2021 season is starting to settle. And key turning points have emerged in which this season started to point south. Here are just a few.
Ramón Laureano suspension: Aug. 6
News of Laureano’s 80-game suspension after testing positive for nandrolone, a performance-enhancing drug, was practically shrugged off by the team. But his loss was felt as their season began to spiral soon after.
It was clear the team didn’t want to dwell on the loss, “You’re forced to move on,” manager Bob Melvin said at the time. “Everybody feels bad for what happened for him. In baseball, you have to have a short memory. There’s only 50-something games left. We have to go out there and play with the pieces that we have. We still have good ones. He is a tough one to lose.”
Laureano went through high-highs and low-lows before his suspension. He was hitting .246 with 14 homers and 39 RBIs in 88 games and, with the acquisition of Starling Marte, the A’s outfield looked more powerful than ever — with double the speed and impact on defense and offense. The A’s won six straight after Laureano’s suspension, but the season took a turn soon after as the A’s struggled to capitalize on scoring opportunities frequently.
Though the next-man-up ethos prevails on any professional team, it was clear then that the A’s would be operating at a disadvantage without a core player on the playoff run with them.
Chris Bassitt hit in the face with a line drive: Aug. 17
A trip to Chicago to face the first-place White Sox proved an opportunity for the A’s to bounce back from a series loss to the struggling Texas Rangers and gain some separation from teams gunning for their wild card spot — the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees were hot on their tail.
Losers of three of their last four, the A’s needed to make a statement against the White Sox. Bassitt, putting together a Cy Young caliber season, was the man for the job. But in the second inning, Brian Goodwin’s 100mph line drive hit him square in the face – a horrific scene that resulted in Bassitt undergoing facial fracture surgery. Soon after, the A’s lost six straight and 11 of their next 21 games.
On Aug. 23, the A’s fell a game back of the Boston Red Sox for the second wild card, the first time they’d not held a share of a playoff spot since April. 17. They never climbed back in.
Back-to-back late losses to Giants: Aug. 21-22
It became clear the A’s might be running out of gas during a dismal six-game losing streak in late August. A streak ignited by back-to-back blown lead losses to the San Francisco Giants.
The first, typically sturdy Andrew Chafin gave up back-to-back home runs to allow San Francisco to cut a three-run lead to one-run. Then Lou Trivino gave up his first home run in months to pinch hitter LaMonte Wade Jr. — a go-ahead, two-run home run in the ninth inning.
The next night, cradling a one-run lead, reliever A.J. Puk gave up a two-run home run to pinch hitter Donovan Solano in the eighth inning, leading to another loss. The meltdown signified a breakdown of an over-taxed bullpen, exhausted from a domino effect of A’s starters’ inability to pitch beyond the fifth inning for a significant stretch.
Marcus Semien walk-off home run: Sept. 3
If any series turned this A’s season sour, it was definitely their visit to Toronto in early September. The A’s were swept in three games, catapulting the Blue Jays into wildcard contention and burying Oakland, essentially, for good.
Marcus Semien’s walk-off three-run home run in Game 1 of the series may be the moment that represented not only a knockout punch of the A’s 2021 season, but a harsh reminder that this organization may never conquer its postseason demons if ownership continues to let top-tier talent walk.
When the A’s couldn’t offer him a serious contract or even the qualifying offer this offseason, Semien signed with the Blue Jays for $18 million.
Semien’s home run was poetic justice at its finest. The A’s didn’t put up much of a fight to bring the local kid and MVP candidate back to Oakland in the offseason, and he exacted perfect revenge with a new team that saw his value.
Swept in four games by Seattle Mariners: Sept. 20-23
The A’ spent most of September on the outside looking into the wild card because they could not capitalize on a stagnant race to sprint back into the picture. For most of August and September, the Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners hesitated to seize control of the handful of postseason spots — competition was open. But the A’s were not up for the challenge.
That was most evident when the A’s returned home for their final homestand riding fumes of a five-game win streak facing their final opportunity to seize control against the Mariners.
Instead, the A’s looked almost uninspired as they took a four-game sweep right to the jaw. It was four of 14 losses to the Mariners this season. A sweep of the first-place Houston Astros right after almost felt unceremonious and inconsequential after that.