Even when the Oakland A’s opened the 2021 season with six straight losses, they at least had a few things go right. There are a lot of players on a baseball team, and a 9-2 loss still means somebody drove in a pair of runs and some pitchers got enough outs to end the game, or else it would still be going.
Indeed, the A’s roster wasn’t full of 26 struggling players. A handful of hitters have been locked in all along, at least in terms of how hard they’re hitting the ball, and a few relievers have quietly slipped in a scoreless inning between all their teammates’ meltdowns.