Nightmare
What fresh new horror did the 2021 Oakland A’s season bring on Friday?
Brace yourselves for this one. The A’s took an 8-2 lead into the 8th inning but blew it, then retook the lead in the 9th, and then lost on a walk-off homer by former teammate Marcus Semien. The final score was 11-10 in favor of the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
*** Click here to revisit tonight’s Game Thread! ***
Yikes. Right when the A’s need every win they can get to stay in the postseason race, they dropped a game that you absolutely can’t lose. Their lineup was great, racking up double-digit scoring. Their rotation was great, delivering seven quality innings. But their bullpen exploded, allowing nine runs in the final two frames. It wasn’t even a save situation when the relievers entered, but by the end they’d blown two saves.
Holding leads has been a problem all week. On Wednesday against the Tigers, Oakland led 6-3 but let it slip away and lost. On Thursday they led Detroit 8-0 and nearly blew it, barely holding on 8-6. Now tonight they were up 8-2 late and let the opponent come back all the way.
What’s worse, this time the decisive blow was leveled by the beloved star who left the A’s last winter as a free agent. Semien was available on a one-year contract but Oakland let him get away, and now he ranks second among all MLB position players in fWAR and just helped hang a loss on his former club.
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