The smile never left Liam Hendriks’s face as he discussed his key role in the A’s first postseason series win since 2006. It couldn’t—he was wearing a mask emblazoned with his own gap-toothed grin.
The look was a definite improvement over his attire just a few minutes earlier. The A’s celebrated their 6–4 win in Game 3 of the American League Wild Card Series the way they have celebrated every other win this season: They drag around the sort of putting mat you might find in a CEO’s office and ask the MVP of the game to hole out.