By Morris Phillips
The A’s arrived in New York heralded, respected and formidable. They left ignonimously, as if they were flown in by 42nd Street casting only to be the stage production’s first casualty, victimized and dismissed before the shallowest curtain could close and reopen for the play’s second scene.
When you visit the Bronx in October, you very well know you could be cast as second fiddle, and in a Wild Card scenario, you also know your role could be brief.
The 2018 A’s, arguably the franchise’s best regular season team in its 40-year history, suffered that fate, exiting stage right at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night.
“Unless you play in the last game, it’s disappointing,” manager Bob Melvin said. “So when you look back and reflect on the whole year, you kind of know where we came from, you know, it ends up being a good year but it doesn’t feel good right now.”
Aaron Judge homered in the first inning, staff ace Luis Severino battled into the fifth inning, and the Yankees parlayed those early fortunes into a 7-2 win. The Bombers advance to Friday’s ALDS Game One appointment with the Red Sox in Boston.
If scripted, the proceedings couldn’t have better turned for New York as manager Aaron Boone acknowledged. Two batters in, thanks to Judge, the Yankees led 2-0.
“With Cutch leading things off–working the walk, getting on base–I talked to you guys a lot about controlling the strike zone Cutch does that so well,” Boone said. “And Judgy with a big swing and, bam, all of a sudden it’s 2-0.”
“And Seve built some steam from there.”
Severino needed just 10 pitches to record the game’s first three outs, the sure sign that the Yankees’ starter was on his game from the start. One of the storylines coming anticipated the Yankees’ ace being off his game as he was in his regular season loss to the A’s, or too hyped up as he was in his uneven, wild card appearance from a year ago against the Twins.
Instead, Severino was all talent in the moment displaying his unique combination of velocity with late movement for a starting pitcher.
While the A’s couldn’t score off Severino, they did elevate his pitch count. But Boone and the Yankees remained a step ahead with Dellin Betances relieving Severino and stranding a pair of baserunners by retiring the final three hitters in the fifth.
“I think that was the plan, go four or five good innings and after that the bullpen is going to go do their job,” Severino said. “And when I went into the first inning that was the mindset. I went there and get my job done.”
The A’s needed to score early and lead, or trail by at most a run. Instead, they would need eight innings to respond. By then, when Khris Davis struck for a two-run shot, the A’s trailed 6-0.
The result rendered the A’s a 97-win footnote in a star-studded American League field featuring three 100-game winners. But with the A’s modest payroll and young, controllable talent, they should be back.
“I’m not disappointed at all,” said Davis. “I think we showed some people we can do some things and I think next year, we’re a little bit more of a threat.”
