Hendriks, A’s say last year’s wild-card loss has taught them how to win this time

Every postseason, we see the same stats crawl across the bottom of the television screen citing a player’s past experience in the playoffs, showing whether he holds the clutch gene or if he’s labeled a choker.

That pressure can weigh on a mind, but for Liam Hendriks, it’s much simpler: “Don’t walk the leadoff guy.”

Hendriks was the A’s opener in last year’s AL wild-card game, walking the Yankees’ Andrew McCutchen before serving up a home run to new-age Bronx Bomber Aaron Judge.

Nine pitches in, the A’s trailed 2-0 and could never draw even in a 7-2 defeat at Yankee Stadium.

This time, Hendriks will likely be in the closer role, which he’s manned for the second half of the regular season. Starting will be Sean Manaea, manager Bob Melvin announced Tuesday. Mike Fiers will be available out of the bullpen in the must-win game.

For a team that plays a six-month marathon season, the win-or-go-home wild-card game is a total switch-up.

“It’s kind of a crapshoot, honestly,” outfielder Mark Canha said. “The only thing we can control going in is our mentality, and I think we have to be confident. I think we have to

go into it expecting to win, like we do every day.”

An optimistic manager will say his club’s experience is a boon — even if it includes a deflating loss. Count Melvin as one. “They’ve played in a game where it’s winnertake-all,” he said in a press conference Tuesday. “You don’t often go through that in baseball.”

One new element this time around is the early start time for a rare nationally-broadcast game

at Oakland Coliseum. A 5 p.m. first pitch is primed for some strange shadows, especially as the days get shorter in the fall.

Rays starter Charlie Morton may be better suited than Manaea to take advantage of the shadows — he relies most on his curveball (37.3%) among a five-pitch arsenal. Manaea relies more heavily on a less-deceiving four-seam fastball (63.4), mixing in his slider and changeup.

But Melvin cited the A’sTigers

suspended game that restarted Sept. 6 with a (seventh-inning) first pitch at 5:15 p.m. as a touchpoint for the team on the issue of hitting with shadows.

“At some point in time, it gets very playable,” Melvin said. “But I think any time you’re on the West Coast, you start a game at 5 o’clock, there are going to be some challenges to that as a hitter.”

Outfielder Ramón Laureano, who started last

year’s wild-card game and went 0 for 3 with a walk, isn’t focusing on the pressure of a one-game playoff. He thinks the A’s added plenty more experience to their playoff resumes for 2019.

“I don’t think about one more game. I think we have way more games here,” Laureano said. “I don’t think the Raiders are playing again here until November, so it’s going to be a full month of Oakland A’s baseball.”