After walk-off win, talk turns to ‘last hurrah’
Wouldn’t it be stunning if the Oakland Athletics’ final season at the Coliseum was remembered not just for owner John Fisher turning his back on the community?
What if these A’s were to be remembered for being a legitimate threat all summer? For competing in every series? For being … dare we say … fun to watch?
Nobody outside the A’s clubhouse could have imagined such a longshot scenario, but a funny thing is happening on the way to another 100loss season: the A’s are winning games.
Lawrence Butler’s walk-off single in the 10th inning Friday night at the Coliseum gave the A’s a 2-1 win over the Nationals, and it was nothing particularly new. This team has won five of six games, a miracle to anyone who watched the season-opening homestand.
It was the A’s first home game since Fisher announced he would locate the team to Sacramento next season instead of remaining at the Coliseum while his Las Vegas stadium is built, a decision that took far too long, a waiting period that was tremendously unfair to players and fans.
But it’s finally final (supposedly), meaning the A’s 2024 season, their 57th on the West Coast, is their swan song in Oakland.
“Talking to previous players and coaches, there’s a lot of history in Oakland,” Butler said at his locker, still pumped up after his first career walk-off RBI. “The fans love Oakland. They’d die for Oakland. They have some of the best fans in baseball with everything going on still.
“We’re just trying to give them something they can remember. It’s the last season, and we want to give them a great season so they can say our last season in Oakland was a winning season.”
A winning season might be too much to ask, but a competitive season? That would be a massive improvement from a year ago. Here’s the difference: after their Friday game the A’s were 6-8. At one point last year, they were 6-26.
Despite the season beginning horribly with a 1-7 homestand starting with an 8-0 loss in the opener — the fan boycott in the parking lot generated more headlines than the game itself — the A’s turned things around on the road by going 4-2 through Detroit and Texas.
Then came Friday’s win that featured Paul Blackburn’s 61⁄3 impressive innings, clutch bullpen work and a monster day for Butler, who knocked in both of Oakland’s runs, the first on a third-inning homer. Washington’s Jesse Winker homered off Dany Jimenez to tie the game in the ninth, but Butler struck again in the 10th.
“I think we’re a good team. I really do,” said Blackburn, whose 19⁄3
1 scoreless innings to begin the season is an Oakland record. “Being able to give that last hurrah to the city of Oakland in our last year here, yeah, we want to go out competitively.”
The players never asked to be part of the muddled drama involving the owner, the relocation, the stadium and all the other pandemonium that surrounds the A’s. They just want to suit up, play ball and make a great living.
Making the best of a gut-wrenching situation has not been easy on A’s players, but they’ve probably done as well as humanly possible.
Most A’s fans feel wounded for what Fisher has done to the franchise, and another tiny crowd showed up Friday (announced at 5,777). Very few concession stands were open, and some employees were wondering about their future after team President Dave Kaval’s comments about front-office staff being trimmed in November and game-day workers being affected as well.
But fans were energetic and lively and went home pleased. They knew Fisher’s April 4 announcement in Sacramento meant they were losing their team at season’s end, yet they came out and supported the players.
“We get little tidbits here and there on what’s happening,” catcher Shea Langeliers said. “A decision was made. It was like, ‘All right, all we can do is go out there and be our best as individuals as baseball players.’ What we worry about is what we do on the field.”
It makes perfect sense. Players aren’t wired to think about next season, let alone next month or next week. Even tomorrow. It’s a daily grind that requires physical strength, mental aptitude and extreme patience, and the A’s are doing a better job of embracing it all than in the season’s first homestand.
On the trip, Langeliers hit three homers in a game. JP Sears pitched six hitless innings in another. And Mason Miller amped his fastball up to 103.7 mph — OK, let’s round it off to 104. Every night is a reminder that this might not be another lost season.
“For us, we’re focused on being a successful baseball team here in Oakland,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “Now that this is the last season, it’s our will to go out and have a September that’s really meaningful. That would be great.”
Kotsay’s players would have no problem with that.
“I think expectations for us at this point are low from everybody outside this clubhouse,” Miller said. “We didn’t have expectations to play up to. But we know we’re better than we were last year.”
Langeliers added, “I think it was a matter of time. We’re putting it together and having fun doing it. We kind of showcased on the trip what we’re capable of, and we’re going to try to build momentum off that and try to keep playing good ball throughout the season.”
Good stories are breaking out all over the clubhouse. Friday, Max Schuemann made his major-league debut as a pinch-runner and scored the game-ending run on Butler’s opposite-field liner to left.
“Pretty cool moment,” Butler said.