Seattle Mariners catcher Chris Herrmann walked off the A's on Tuesday with a two-run homer, and locked Oakland into its playoff seeding in the process.
The loss, coupled with the Houston Astros' win against the Blue Jays, eliminated the A's from contention in the American League West. As a result, Oakland will play the New York Yankees in the wild card game on Oct. 3. The winner will advance to play the Boston Red Sox in the American League Division Series.
So the A's know who they will play, but they don't know where they will play. Oakland trails the Bronx Bombers by 2.5 games for home-field advantage in the play-in game, and New York's magic number is down to two.
The Yankees will have five chances to clinch, while the A's only have four games remaining. As Ben Ross wrote earlier this week, New York holds the tiebreaker, but home-field isn't a shoo-in for advancement. Since the introduction of the wild card game in 2012, AL road teams are exactly .500 (3-3).
