Mariners suffer soul-crushing walk-off loss to A’s on Langeliers homer

OAKLAND, Calif. – When the ball exited off the barrel of Shea Langeliers’ bat at a ridiculous rate of speed, there was little doubt the towering blast was going to go well over the fence in left field.

It sounded like a home run.

But would the vapor trail stay fair or hook foul?

Austin Voth, who’d thrown the hanging sweeper, watched helplessly from the mound, hoping for another chance.

But given how things have transpired for the Mariners in the second half of the season, particularly away from home, not even a small tornado dropping into the Oakland Coliseum early Monday evening could’ve blown the ball foul.

With his teammates spilling out of the dugout to help will the ball to stay fair, Langeliers walked down the baseline, both hands on the bat, watching as it stayed true and inside the foul pole for a solo homer and a 5-4 walk-off victory over the Mariners.

On a day when both the Astros and the Royals lost, the Mariners couldn’t find a way to make up a game in either the AL West or the AL wild card race, losing for the 13th time in their last 16 road games.

They fell to 69-69 and remain six games back in the AL West and 5.5 back in the wild card race with the Red Sox (78-68) and Tigers (70-69) ahead of them.

“Tough way to start a series,” manager Dan Wilson said. “Walk-offs are always hard. They’re difficult. But I thought the guys really fought tonight. The effort was there. We really battled all the way to the end. It’s a tough one to take.”

With 24 games remaining, they can’t take many more losses.

Their playoff hopes are somewhere between: “Keep telling yourself that” and “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

The Mariners’ five losses since Wilson took over for fired manager Scott Servais, including the three on this road trip, have all been by one run.

At some point, mindset and effort have to be met with execution.

For those thinking the Mariners would have an easy time getting right in this series with the A’s as they wind down their stay at the Coliseum, it’s instructive to note that Oakland has been the better team since about mid-June.

Since June 19 when they went up 10 games in the division, the Mariners are 25-38. Over that same span, the A’s are 33-30. Since the All-Star break, the Mariners have posted a 17-23 record while Oakland is 23-17.

“This is a team that has had a good second half,” Wilson said. “We all know that, and we were prepared. It was a great fight. This is just a tough one, but tomorrow’s another day.”

Langeliers essentially beat the Mariners by himself. He also hit a three-run homer off Logan Gilbert in a game-changing third inning.

Gilbert pitched six innings, allowing four runs on four hits with a walk and nine strikeouts. It wasn’t his best outing, but he gave the Mariners a chance to win.

Almost all of the A’s production against Gilbert came with two outs in a regrettable and frustrating third inning after his teammates provided him a 3-0 lead, highlighted by Cal Raleigh’s two-run homer in the first inning.

After retiring eight of the first nine batters he faced, including a strikeout of Tyler Nevin and a lineout to Max Schuemann to start the third, Gilbert lost a lengthy at-bat with A’s leadoff hitter Lawrence Butler despite being up 0-2.

Butler wouldn’t swing at chase pitches out of the zone and fouled off a 99-mph fastball and nasty splitter below the zone. Gilbert tried a 2-2 slider, but the pitch stayed on the inner half of the plate and was launched into right-center field for a double.

“He’s just been really hot right now,” Gilbert said. “It was just a good piece of hitting.”

Brent Rooker jumped on a first-pitch slider from Gilbert in a similar location, sending a groundball into the left-field corner for a double to score Butler.

Facing J.J. Bleday, Gilbert again got up 0-2, but fired four off-speed pitches – two splitters and two sliders out of the zone – that went for balls and a walk.

For the third time in the inning, a slider that stayed in the middle of the plate cost Gilbert. After missing with a first-pitch curveball to Langeliers, Gilbert came back with a slider that was supposed to be on the outside corner and instead hung in the middle of the zone. Langeliers crushed it onto the steps in left field for a three-run homer and a 4-3 lead.

“That was the one I wanted back,” Gilbert said. “I felt like my direction was a little off on that pitch. I didn’t really get my hand out front and left it over the middle. Honestly, the curveball before, it might have been the bigger pitch to get back, because if I get 0-1, it’s a different story there.”

Irritated, but unshaken, Gilbert struck out Seth Brown to end the inning. It was the first of 10 consecutive hitters retired by Gilbert to close out his outing after six innings.

His teammates picked him up by tying the game in the top of the sixth. Julio Rodriguez singled and stole second. He later scored on Justin Turner’s single to left field.