A's Chapman: 'I'm sorry to our fans' after another early playoff exit
Another successful regular season ended in postseason disappointment for the Oakland Athletics.
The A's, who won 97 games this year, dropped a ninth consecutive winner-take-all contest after being bounced in the American League wild-card game by the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday.
The loss came in front of an MLB wild-card record 54,005 fans at Oakland Coliseum.
"It just hurts when you come up short," third baseman Matt Chapman said, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. "I feel bad for the fans because they came out and supported us, they were here early and they were loud and when we were down, they were trying to get us going. We wanted so badly to get a big hit or get some momentum going, but it seemed like we didn’t really give them anything to cheer about - I'm sorry to our fans. We let them down and we let each other down."
The Athletics fall to 0-9 in winner-take-all games in the Billy Beane era. pic.twitter.com/B9Qvawq9cK
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 3, 2019
It's the second straight season the A's failed to advance out of the wild-card game, and fourth consecutive playoff appearance in which they couldn't reach the ALCS since 2006.
"At the end of the day, we've lost two in a row now and that's two too many in our eyes," All-Star reliever Liam Hendriks said. "It never crossed our minds we'd be going home tonight, because this is a special team here."
Oakland hasn't won its division since 2013.
The A's have reason for optimism moving forward despite residing in the same division as the Houston Astros. The club returns all of its core from this year and has a number of intriguing young pitchers like Jesus Luzardo ready to contribute to the major-league club for a full season.