OAKLAND - Sean Manaea was sitting at the table in the clubhouse surrounded by teammates eating steak and pasta.
He was staring into space. I couldn't tell if he had a plate of food in front of him, but it didn't matter. I doubt he would have taken a bite.
After the devastating 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL Wild Card Game, he was the hardest on himself.
"It stinks," he told reporters postgame in the clubhouse. "This one sucks. I don't even know how to describe it, it's a tough loss and it's lost solely on me. I had one job and I did poorly, really poorly and I let everyone down and it sucks, but hopefully, we can learn from these kinds of things and move on from there."
Across two frames, Manaea gave up four hits including three homers. He didn't walk any and struck out five, but that wasn't enough to seal the victory.
Manaea was surging and coming off of shoulder surgery and dominated in his five September starts.
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A 1.21 ERA, 0.78 WHIP and allowing just four runs in 30 innings with 30 strikeouts is why he got the ball in the one-and-done game.
"I don't know if you call it a rollercoaster, just started out of rehab and I just worked my way back up here and then -- yeah, it just sucks that it ended so quickly," Manaea said.
He added the team worked hard to get to October baseball and they trusted him to get the job done.
Manaea didn't get the job done, but the amount of hugs he received from his teammates during a somber postgame clubhouse assures they still trust him.
The embraces in the clubhouse had a soundtrack of packing tape dispensers with those surrounding Manaea who was still looking straight ahead.
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He was looking at nothing, but those around him could see his teammates still had his back. I doubt any of them lost sleep knowing they sent the right guy to the mound that night.
