With Mariners Closing Wild-Card Gap, Will A's Really Complete Historic Collapse?

Every team, at some point, imagines its ultimate nightmare scenario. The very worst of worst-case contingencies.

The Oakland Athletics are way beyond that.

Oakland spent much of the season as the prohibitive front-runners in the American League and went nuts at the trade deadline, dealing for top-line starters Jeff Samardzija and Jon Lester.

The small-market club that made its reputation from doing less with more was finally going all in.

Then, it all fell apart.

A gut-punching 7-2 loss to the woeful Texas Rangers on Thursday (capping a shocking sweep at home) bumped the A's to 83-69, half a game behind the Kansas City Royals for the first wild-card position.

Even more troubling for Oakland, the upstart Seattle Mariners, with a thrilling 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Angles, moved just one game back of the A's for the second wild card.

Oakland, in other words, is teetering on the brink of an epic collapse.

No matter how you slice it, the second half has not been kind to the Green and Gold. Since the All-Star break, Oakland has gone a pedestrian 32-37. 

And since the A's dealt Cuban slugger Yoenis Cespedes to the Boston Red Sox for Lester at the deadline, they have gone a paltry 17-28.

It's tempting to blame the precipitous skid on the Lester trade, but failures have occurred across the board.

JOHN FROSCHAUER/Associated Press

Yes, the offense—which once led MLB in scoring—has stagnated. But the bullpen, defense and basically every other facet of the game have betrayed the A's at one time or another.

"When you're in a race, it's supposed to be fun," outfielder and first baseman Brandon Moss told MLB.com's Jane Lee after Thursday's defeat. "But I don't see anyone in this clubhouse having any fun."

Continued Moss: "We're disappointed. But it's not over, and we know that. I think we're definitely pressing to right the ship."

Oakland has 10 games remaining, six of them at home, and seven against losing teams. The Mariners, meanwhile, play seven of their final 10 games on the road, and only three against a club with a losing record.

There's something bigger at play, though. Oakland, normally the let-it-all-hang-out, nothing-to-lose underdog, is struggling under the weight of lofty expectations.

"Every day we're talking about how we're still in the wild card," said manager Bob Melvin, per Lee. "All that's moot unless we start to play better."

Ted S. Warren/Associated Press

General manager Billy Beane, who has been portrayed by Brad Pitt but has never advanced past the ALCS in 17 years at the helm, mortgaged the future for glory in the present.

If the A's fail to even make the playoffs, let alone make a deep run, this will be arguably the biggest bust of Beane's heralded, "Moneyball" tenure.

As Gabe Lacques of USA Today put it after Oakland's loss Wednesday versus Texas, in which All-Star closer Sean Doolittle coughed up a late lead, "The Oakland Athletics, in the midst of a collapse not seen in their division for a full two decades, are finding deeper depths to plumb, and even more macabre ways to self-immolate."

Or, as Doolittle himself said after the loss, per Lacques:

"

It's going to be a turning point one way or another. After the season's over, are we going to look back and point at tonight as the game where the wheels came off for good, or are we going to be able to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and talk about how resilient we are as a team and how we were able to overcome a game like this and still get it done?

"

The nightmare scenario is happening. The only question is, can the A's wake up in time?