KNOCKED OUT
A’s playoff journey ends once again at the hands of rival Astros
Ramón Laureano couldn’t suppress his tears. Zoom video call pixels couldn’t hide them, either.
This strange season, complicated by a global pandemic, ended the way every other A’s postseason trip has since 2006 — with Oakland well short of reaching the World Series.
The A’s fell to the Houston Astros 11- 6 at Dodger Stadium on Thursday to lose the American League Division Series 3-1.
This exit was familiar for Oakland but maybe even extra bitter. It came amid a tumultuous few months impacted by the coronavirus and at the hands of the division rival it thought it had finally conquered. It buried a goal this team set eight months ago to win the World Series.
“It’s a bad feeling,” Laureano said with a pause to breathe back tears. “But hopefully it doesn’t happen again. Next year we’re just going to keep our head up. Keep working. Keep dreaming about moving forward and winning a World Series. And, yeah, that’s it.”
Compounding the agony
of defeat is how this series against Houston unfolded for the A’s. All the factors they could control in the regular season betrayed them in this series.
The same bullpen that compiled a league- leading 2.72 ERA during the 60-game season could not contain the Astros’ powerful and determined lineup. In four games, the A’s bullpen allowed 13 earned runs in 19 innings, amounting to a 6.15 ERA.
The bullpen woes were on full display in the series decider Thursday as J. B. Wendelken, Joakim Soria and Jake Diekman allowed six earned runs, two each.
“You look at the numbers over the course of our regular season with the bullpen, it was — we have a lead after the sixth, we usually won,” manager Bob Melvin said. “It didn’t happen this series. We struggled to hold them down the entire game at times. It was a good offensive team that hit their stride at the right time.”
The Astros are loaded with good hitters who have a lot of postseason experience. The A’s relievers weren’t throwing particularly hittable pitches — save for a few left up. After the A’s loss in Game 1, Oakland starter Chris Bassitt said he struggled to keep his pitches down in the zone in the Los Angeles heat.
It didn’t seem to matter whom Melvin sent to the mound — starter or reliever. They collectively struggled. Starters Bassitt, Sean Manaea, Jesús Luzardo and Frankie Montas, who pitched Thursday, were not able to get past the fifth inning.
Montas started strong but things went south in a hurry when Houston erupted for five runs in the fourth to turn a 3- 0 deficit into a two-run advantage.
In the four games, the A’s starters accumulated an 8.82 ERA and the pitching staff gave up 32 runs. An Astros staff missing ace Justin Verlander and riding on the backs of a young bullpen that struggled throughout the regular season allowed 20 runs.
The A’s bullpen was expected to be an advantage in this series. But it didn’t work out that way.
“In the postseason you tend to go to your bullpen a little earlier when you have a strength,” Melvin said. “We just couldn’t hold them down in any facet, as far as the pitching went.”
The pitching staff’s ineffectiveness created mountains for the A’s offense. Without injured third baseman Matt Chapman — or even with him — the A’s don’t necessarily match up head-to-head with the Astros, especially from a power standpoint.
“They kind of just outslugged us,” outfielder Mark Canha said. “In the end, it just came down to hitting the ball over the fence. And they did a little better than we did. I don’t know how else to explain it.”
Home Run Derby played on a never-ending loop. The 24 home runs the teams slugged are the most in a five-game postseason series in Major League Baseball history — and it took them only four games to do it.
Laureano accounted for two home runs, both Thursday. He hit a three- run homer off Zack Greinke for a 3- 0 lead in the second and added a solo shot off the Houston starter in the fifth.
The Astros hit four home runs in the clinching game.
Michael Brantley’s tworun homer in the fourth cut the A’s lead to 3-2.
Carlos Correa, motivated by the villain label the Astros have worn in the aftermath of their sign-stealing scandal, followed with a three- run homer that gave Houston the lead for good. Correa has talked the talk in the postseason, and he and Houston’s talented lineup has walked the walk, particularly Thursday.
The Astros blew it open against the bullpen, hitting home runs off Wendelken and Diekman.
“Any lead early in the game is not enough on either side,” shortstop Marcus Semien said. “Maybe in the regular season, or in Oakland when the ball isn’t traveling as far. But in this series, you just have to keep adding on. And they did that.”
Though the A’s 12 home runs set a franchise record for a postseason series, they could have used a few more — and nearly got them.
Mat t Olson a lmo st cleared the short right-field fence in the fourth, but Josh Reddick robbed him with a terrific catch.
With the A’s down by five in the seventh with two runners on, Semien hit what looked like a sure home run that might have ignited another rally, or at least drawn them closer for the ninth inning. But the ball died at the wall, and Houston left fielder Kyle Tucker made the catch.
Houston added two runs in the bottom of the seventh to put the game all but out of reach.
Tasked with answering questions about their exit at on a postgame Zoom news conference, the A’s appeared dazed by the season’s sudden end. They played only 67 games in 2020. Some players said they feel as if they’re just getting started. Now, they’ll have a long offseason to wait for next year.
“As athletes, you have to take failing. It’s a failure,” Canha said. “We wanted to win the World Series. Anything short of that is falling short of our goal. Every failure as a competitor is an opportunity.”