No team knows the agony of instant elimination like the Oakland Athletics. In the eight seasons of the Major League Baseball wild-card game, only the A's found a way to lose it three times: to Kansas City in 2014, the New York Yankees in 2018 and Tampa Bay in 2019.
So when the A's dropped their playoff opener to the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday at the Oakland Coliseum, they were hard-wired for how to respond. Gloom filled the clubhouse.
"You get in the clubhouse. No one's saying anything; it's just quiet," infielder Chad Pinder said. "It's almost like everybody at the same time was like: 'Wait, we're not packing up. We don't have to catch a flight. We're going back to the hotel, and we're coming right back here to play.' "
Indeed, baseball's new, expanded playoff format gave Oakland another chance: The first round is now a best-of-three series, not a one-game showdown. The A's took advantage by surviving Wednesday and then advancing with a 6-4 victory Thursday, setting up a best-of-five division series in Los Angeles against their nemesis: the Houston Astros. Game 1 is Monday afternoon.
You know the back story by now. Oakland pitcher Mike Fiers, a former Astro, told The Athletic in November that Houston had illegally stolen signs on its way to a World Series title in 2017. An MLB investigation confirmed the allegations, but as part of their agreement to cooperate, no Houston players were disciplined.
The scandal and the lack of punishment roiled players around the league, and the A's kept Fiers away from the Astros; he started none of Oakland's 10 games against Houston in this abbreviated regular season. The teams brawled in August when Oakland's Ramon Laureano charged the Houston dugout after a coach, Alex Cintron, insulted him. But mostly the A's got revenge by playing better.
Oakland went 7-3 against Houston this season and won the division by seven games, stopping the Astros' string of three American League West titles. Oakland closer Liam Hendriks said the A's are eager to build off that success.
"But it's also not being petty and letting our emotions get the better of us by trying to be over the top and vengeful and everything like this," he said. "We've played them enough times this year. We had a good record against them; they know that; we know that. And now we're going to go into a series and hopefully take care of business early."
