A's send the Mariners to playoffs with 101st loss
SEATTLE >> In their 100th loss, the A's nearly made history for the opposition too.
Friday night, in their 101st loss, they did. Oakland's 2-1 loss in Seattle sent the Mariners to the playoffs for the first time since 2001, ending the longest postseason drought in Major League Baseball.
“It's better than maybe what you could dream it to be,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said.
The ending was right out of Hollywood: A walk-off homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth by a rookie, pinchhitting no less. Oh, on a 3-2 pitch.
More than an hour after Cal Raleigh hit it, he was back on the field with his teammates, circling the perimeter of the field to acknowledge the tens of thousands of fans who still stuck around. Raleigh's 28th homer of the season, a record for Seattle catchers, landed just inside the right-field foul pole to break a 1-1 tie.
“I remember the moment when I knew it was fair and looking at the team and everybody's jumping. It was just crazy,” Raleigh said.
The last time the Mariners advanced to the postseason, the team was led by rookie Ichiro Suzuki and Edgar Martinez and managed by Lou Piniella. Seattle's berth ended the longest active playoff drought in any of the four major professional sports, a dubious honor that now falls to the Sacramento Kings, who have not made the NBA playoffs since the 2005-06 season. The Mariners are still the only current team never to have played in the World Series.
The A's didn't make it easy on them. One night after being no-hit for eight innings in Los Angeles by Shohei Ohtani, the A's got a single from their first hitter, Tony Kemp. In the second inning, down 1-0, they tied the score on a home run by Shea Langeliers, his fourth.
A's starter Ken Waldichuk and an assembly line of relievers held the Mariners to five hits over eight innings. Waldichuk, acquired in the Frankie Montas trade with the Yankees, had eight strikeouts in five innings.
• Kemp did it again Saturday, leading off the game with a hit, and this time the A's got him home. But Adam Oller, staked to a 1-0 lead, gave up three runs in the first inning and the A's lost 5-1. It was the sixth straight loss for Oakland (56-102).
Oller (2-8) was coming off the 15-day injured list after a bout of rib costochondritis, the swelling of cartilage between the ribcage and breast bone. J.P. Sears took over to start the second inning and pitched through the seventh, allowing just two hits while striking out six.
After they conclude the series Sunday, the A's come home for three games against the Angels to end the season.
The Marines have four games against Detroit as they try to catch Toronto and stay ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays. The No. 1 wild card hosts a threegame series beginning Friday.