By Morris Phillips

In their season home finale on Sunday, the A’s found themselves just short again, losing by one run to the Giants, 5-4, and setting a new team-record for one-run losses at 33 in the pain-staking process.

Unfortunately for the A’s, in the case, the numbers do add up.

Prior to the stretch drive of last season, the A’s dealt slugger Yoenis Cespedes to the Red Sox to acquire pitcher Jon Lester, a performer they hoped would propel them to a World Series appearance.  Then in the off-season, third baseman Josh Donaldson was shipped to Toronto.  Both players have had MVP-quality seasons for their new clubs, combining for a whopping 76 home runs.

In addition, closer Sean Doolittle missed all but the final month of 2015 due to various injuries.  In his place, six different relievers earned at least one save for the A’s, but they were no equal of what Doolittle provided, combing for a paltry total of 25 saves.

A team without a transcendent hitter in the middle of the lineup capable of turning around games with a single swing of the bat, and no closer to protect those narrow, late game leads will lose a lot of close ballgames.  And therein lies the story of the 2015 A’s: Oakland won just 34 home games in 2015, one more than the number of one-run ballgames that they lost.

“If we win a little bit more, half, or more than half of those (one-run) games, we’d probably be right there in contention with this division,” Josh Reddick said.

“It’s indicative of our season,” Stephen Vogt said of the one-run buggaboo.  “Also kind of indicative of our season is that we had the winning run at the plate (on Sunday).”

Against the Giants and pitcher Chris Heston, the A’s fell behind 5-0 on Sunday.  But they battled back with a pair of runs scored in the fifth and then again in the sixth inning.  But the A’s went quiet after that, failing to score in any of the final three frames, as Giants’ closer Santiago Casilla struck out Billy Burns with the tying run on base to end the ballgame.

The A’s didn’t need another reminder of what they were missing in 2015, but there Casilla stood shaking hands with his Giants’ teammates after the final out at the O.co Coliseum in 2015.  Casilla pitched three full seasons in Oakland, totaling just four saves.  In the following six seasons with the Giants, Casilla has racked up 91 saves and three World Series titles.

Did we mention that Donaldson is the presumptive AL MVP award winner with 122 RBI?

NOTES: The Giants won in Oakland for only the fourth time since the beginning of the 2010 season.  San Francisco entered the Bay Bridge series just 2-11 in their previous 13 games at the O.co Coliseum.  A’s starter Sean Nolin lasted just 2 1/3 innings on Sunday, allowing all five Giants’ runs in the process.  The September callup allowed at least five hits in each of his five starts, and failed to pitch into the seventh inning of any of those appearances.  Brett Lawrie committed his team-worst 24^th error in the third, allowing Brandon Crawford to reach on his errant throw.  Crawford later scored in that inning to put the Giants up 4-0.

Danny Valencia left Sunday’s game after being hit by a pitch on the elbow.  He will be further evaluated on Monday.  Sonny Gray is not expected to pitch again this season, although manager Bob Melvin kept the possibility open pending another evaluation of Gray’s condition on Monday.