The Oakland Athletics entered play on Tuesday night red-hot, with wins in 11 of their last 13 games. After a four-run ninth inning to take the game into extras against the Houston Astros, it appeared they may be on verge of their 12th victory in 14 games.

The A’s had a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the 11th and had the infield in with no outs, when Houston’s Tony Kemp hit a groundball to Oakland shortstop Marcus Semien, and Semien threw the ball home in an effort to cut down the tying run. The throw appeared to be good enough to get the out, but catcher Jonathan Lucroy dropped the ball, allowing the tying run to score.

Things only got worse for Lucroy from there.

After A’s closer Blake Treinen got George Spring to fly out, Houston’s Alex Bregman (who hit two homers on the night), hit a roller about five feet in front of home plate.

It was unclear if the ball would stay fair, but Lucroy jumped on the ball while it was in fair territory to get what should’ve been an easy out. But he fumbled the ball while trying to tag Bregman (who was even running backwards to the plate to avoid the tag), and then threw the ball into right field while trying to throw out Bregman at first base. The Astros’ Kyle Tucker came around to score on the play, giving the Astros a bizarre 6-5 walk-off victory.

While Lucroy was only charged with one error in all of this, he made three errors in reality in the final inning to result in an A’s loss.

That’s rough. The defending champion Astros are difficult enough to beat, but especially when you can’t make basic baseball plays.

About Matt Clapp

Matt is an editor at The Comeback. He attended Colorado State University, wishes he was Saved by the Bell's Zack Morris, and idolizes Larry David. And loves pizza and dogs because obviously.

He can be followed on Twitter at @Matt2Clapp (also @TheBlogfines for Cubs/MLB tweets and @DaBearNecess for Bears/NFL tweets), and can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.