The day that we all were waiting for finally arrived on Tuesday, Aug. 8th. The Oakland Athletics, in the middle match of a three-game series against the visiting Rangers, lost their 82nd game of 2023, 6-1 against Texas, and confirmed their second consecutive losing season.
Truth be told, this was a rather impressive accomplishment. Delaying such news until this deep into the summer, I mean.
The A's were a 3-16 team on Apr. 19 and on pace to win 25 games. The A's were a 12-50 on Jun. 5 and on pace to win 19 games. Just a couple of months later and after putting on some solid baseball for the last few weeks, the A's at least righted their wrongs a bit and are now 32-82 with a chance at avoiding becoming the worst team in the history of the MLB, on pace to win 45 games.
#9 for JJ! pic.twitter.com/U47Gmn6KJ7
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) August 9, 2023
JJ Bleday of all men was the man breaking Max Scherzer's hopes of no-hitting the A's on Tuesday.
Nick Allen followed Bleday's homer with a single in the fifth inning, and Jordan Diaz would add another single in the bottom of the seventh. That was all of the offense Oakland brought to the table. Sheesh.
The A's can't really complain that much, though, knowing they already dropped a game in The Lone Star State midway through April by a silly 3-18 score. This loss was much better, exactly three times an improvement.
Oakland might not have to go through the pain of enduring such an atrocious season ever again. The A's are all but confirmed to move to Las Vegas by the time the 2028 season gets rolling, but with their lease of the Oakland Coliseum expiring in Dec. 2024, the team might have to temporarily play somewhere else even starting next season to avoid a rather awkward situation.
Gone are the days of the winning A's, but they aren't so far away in the rearview mirror. The A's won 86 games in 2021. They posted a .600 record in the pandemic year of 2020 after winning 97 games on back-to-back campaigns before that year.
The last time Oakland put together two losing seasons, they did so in the 2015-2017 span. The next time the A's put together two losing seasons after the 2023 year is over, they might do as the Reno Athletics, or the Sacramento A's.
Next challenge: avoiding getting swept by the Rangers on Wednesday after losing three straight games to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the start of August.