Wild Card standings: A’s pretty much toast after getting swept at home

That’s it for the Oakland A’s postseason chances in 2021.

Entering the week, the A’s still had a slim opportunity to compete in the Wild Card race, especially since they were riding high on a five-game winning streak. But they got swept at home in four games by the Seattle Mariners, and now those hopes are over. They still haven’t quite been mathematically eliminated yet, but realistically it’s inevitable at this point.

• Game #150: A’s snap streak in quiet loss to Mariners
• Game #151: A’s lose to Mariners again
• Game #152: A’s lose third straight, fall behind Mariners in standings
• Game #153: A’s swept at home by Mariners

There were five teams competing for two AL Wild Card spots. Since our last look on Monday, there’s been quite a bit of movement in the standings.

Oakland dropped by two games and are now four out of the final playoff spot. What’s worse, the Mariners passed them, meaning there are now three teams between the A’s and the Second Wild Card. Meanwhile, Boston and New York won all their games, while Toronto lost three of four to fall out of postseason position.

The weekend could bring another shakeup, though, as the Red Sox and Yankees face off for three games at Fenway. The Sox are on a seven-game winning streak, so they could pull further ahead and give the Jays and Mariners an opening below them, or the Yankees could take over the race. Toronto is visiting the last-place Twins but lost the first game yesterday, while the Mariners head south to play the Angels.

• NYY @ BOS
• TOR @ MIN
• SEA @ LAA
• OAK vs. HOU

For what it’s worth, Oakland hosts the Astros, but the primary consideration at this point is not letting them clinch the AL West division title on the Coliseum field. Houston leads Seattle in the division by seven games with nine to play.

As for the A’s own postseason odds, a few days ago they were around 10% but now they’re almost nil.

• FanGraphs: 0.2%
• FiveThirtyEight: less than 1%
• Baseball-Reference: less than 0.1%

The Mariners are in the 5-8% range, while the Sox are above 95% and the Jays still have the edge over the Yankees.

It’s a disappointing end to what was supposed to be a contending season in Oakland. Too much went wrong, from injuries to a PED suspension to all the one-run losses and blown saves, and not enough went right. At least there was one positive story this week with the return of Chris Bassitt, but it’s a moral victory now.

There will not be a fourth straight Oaktober.