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A’s fans showed the world who they always were. Plus: The ramifications of Monday’s doubleheader, the Yankees and Dodgers clinched and the White Sox “can’t even lose right.” I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!
Closure? Oakland fans show out for last game
The Oakland A’s played their final game in the Coliseum yesterday, picking up a 3-2 win over the Rangers.
JJ Bleday made a nice catch. Travis Jankowski grounded out on a 104 mph Mason Miller fastball to end it. I’m not sure I’ll remember much more from the game. What I will remember: watching a packed Coliseum (46,889, officially) showing owner John Fisher what had been right there all along.
I’m not suggesting that the A’s could’ve had 81 sold-out games a year. But a beautiful, unique and dedicated fanbase — no, community — was always just waiting for someone to make an effort.
You’ve heard that love is unconditional. Well, relationships aren’t. They require accountability, a willingness to listen and actions that demonstrate the other party matters to you. In particular, without accountability, you just enable more bad behavior.
So yeah, when the roster was repeatedly gutted just at the brink of contention, the amenities were slashed and ticket prices skyrocketed … fans held the front office accountable. Attendance dropped. To hear Fisher talk, the situation was simply untenable.
Sure, it was. But the fans didn’t make it that way. They just took the first step to point it out.
Even through the anger, the love was still evident yesterday. Fans made it clear that they still supported the players, coaches and workers who made the Coliseum special, in spite of its flaws. The history meant the world to those for whom the Oakland A’s were baseball.
And it was reciprocal, from those who, y’know, actually wore the green and gold. It was in manager Mark Kotsay’s emotional voice as he addressed the crowd after the game. It was there between the lines of Brent Rooker’s postgame comments.
It was shoveled, scoop by scoop, into their hands.
Alas, another affair trumped it all: the one between John Fisher and the eternal gaping maw of greed. Fisher won’t be the first to be lured (and subsequently disappointed) by the lying allure of all the money in Las Vegas.
That lesson won’t fill the void, but it’s coming for Fisher anyway. When it does, I hope he remembers what was there in Oakland the whole time, just waiting for him to love it back.
Ken’s Notebook: Potential fallout from the Mets-Braves mess
From my latest column:
The collateral damage from the Great Rainout Debacle could extend to the Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres, two teams that hardly deserve to be disadvantaged.
If the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves need to play a doubleheader Monday to determine one or two of the final National League postseason berths, it will severely compromise them in the wild-card series, forcing either or both clubs to play eight games in seven days.
But what if the doubleheader is necessary only for seeding, and commissioner Rob Manfred exercises his discretion to cancel it entirely? The Mets and Braves would end up playing 160 games rather than the 162 required of every other club. Which hardly seems fair to the Brewers and Padres, both of whom have earned home field for the best-of-three wild-card round.
Seeding is not as inconsequential as some might think. If either or both NL East teams land wild cards, it could have major implications, both for travel and home-field advantage in subsequent rounds.
For starters, the flight from Atlanta to Milwaukee is shorter than the flight from Atlanta to San Diego. And remember two years ago, when the fifth-seeded Padres met the sixth-seeded Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series? Seeding determined home-field advantage, though the Phillies won the series, anyway.
Manfred will need to take all this into consideration in attempting to make the fairest possible decision. If the Mets and Braves play two fewer games, that’s 18 fewer innings their pitchers must throw, 18 fewer innings their position players must compete. A small thing? Perhaps. But one Brewers person, granted anonymity for his candor, put it like this: “It would not be fair. We should forfeit the last game and not use pitchers in Game 162.”
Brewers general manager Matt Arnold was more diplomatic, saying, “We’re focused on controlling what we can control and not worried about who we’ll play or how they get there.”
Padres GM A.J. Preller did not respond to a request for comment.
Nothing has been decided. The situation is unique, and perhaps was unavoidable. As The Athletic’s Britt Ghiroli wrote, the Mets and Braves acted out of self-interest with their scheduling choices. Neither club, however, imagined it would end up in this position. And while Major League Baseball could have been more proactive, forcing the teams to play earlier in the week, it held out hope, not unreasonably, that the forecast might improve.
The Arizona Diamondbacks potentially face more immediate consequences than the Brewers and Padres. If only one of the Mets or Braves clinches a wild card this weekend, that team could mostly use its reserves and low-leverage pitchers in the one or two games that would take place Monday (it could be one if the outcome of the opener decided the race). The other team, if it is still competing with the Diamondbacks, then would have an easier path to the final spot.
More NL playoffs: Tim Britton breaks down the many scenarios still in play.
Standings Watch: Yankees and Dodgers clinch divisions
It took longer than they’d hoped, but both ended with statements, clinching by beating their division runners-up badly.
- The Yankees were first, beating the Orioles 10-1 for the clincher as they bounced back from a fourth-place finish in 2023. Gerrit Cole went 6 2/3 innings to notch his eighth win of the year, while Aaron Judge hit his 58th home run of the year. Guess that players-only meeting worked.
- Out west, the Dodgers wrapped up the night’s action by beating the Padres 7-2. Walker Buehler gave up just one run in five innings, while Shohei Ohtani became the first player since Sammy Sosa in 2001 to surpass 400 total bases in a season. Time for San Diego to refocus on the wild card.
The next carrot left to chase for top teams? Home-field advantage for the playoffs. The Yankees are 93-66, one game ahead of the Cleveland Guardians (92-67). The Dodgers (95-64) hold an identical lead over the Phillies (94-65).
Here’s who’s playing whom in the final days of that race:
- Yankees vs. Pirates
- Guardians vs. Astros
- Dodgers at Rockies
- Phillies at Nationals
Define ‘Worst’: Angels beat White Sox at their own game (but not at baseball)
Quick quiz: Who’s the worst team in baseball?
Going by the win-loss record, it’s obviously the White Sox. They’re tied with the 1962 Mets for the modern-era loss record, 120. But they’ve been stuck there for three games now, in part because it’s possible that the Los Angeles Angels are a worse team right now than the team contending for the title of worst ever.
Don’t take my word for it, ask their manager Ron Washington:
“We forgot to bring real baseball players into the organization. Nothing against those guys here, but they’re not big-league baseball players, and they certainly can’t help us win a championship.”
Yikes. Washington later backpedaled, saying he meant that the current Angels are players “who have to grow into big-league players.”
Are the two interpretations really that far apart? The Angels’ loss on Thursday gave them 96, a new franchise record. As Sam Blum explains, that’s hardly an optimistic situation.
For the White Sox, the sweep means they won’t set the record at home, as they go to Detroit to take on the (also?) red-hot Tigers. As Jon Greenberg puts it: “They can’t even lose right.”
Speaking of the “Gritty Tigs,” they won last night. So did the Royals, so the two teams remain tied for the second and third AL wild-card spots.
Meanwhile, the Twins lost in 13 innings to the Marlins, dropping them to 82-77, tied with the Mariners, and three games out with three games to go. For either team to make it, they’d have to win out and either the Royals or Tigers would have to lose out. Here’s who’s playing whom for the last three games:
- Tigers vs. White Sox
- Royals at Braves
- Twins vs. Orioles
- Mariners vs. A’s
Handshakes and High Fives
(Top photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
