The Athletics’ once-promising 2026 MLB season has cratered.

With Friday’s stunning 23-4 pummeling at the hands of the Washington Nationals at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, the A’s have lost 10 consecutive games, and the numbers aren’t pretty.

Per OptaStats, the A’s are the first team in baseball’s modern era (since 1900) to have an OPS so low (.575) and an OPS allowed so high (1.019).

The A’s during their current 10-game losing streak:

.575 OPS (batting)
1.019 OPS allowed (pitching)

No other MLB team in the modern era has had a 10-game span with an OPS that low and an opponent OPS that high.

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) July 18, 2026

And as MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos points out, the Athletics have been outscored 91-25 during the 10-game skid.

Things somehow got worse for the A’s in their first game back from the All-Star break. They lose 23-4 to the Nationals. They’ve lost 10 in a row, have been outscored 91-25 during that skid and have only held the lead for a half-inning in that stretch.

— Martín Gallegos (@MartinJGallegos) July 18, 2026

Rookie starter Gage Jump wasn’t sharp, but it wasn’t a bad outing. In 3 2/3 innings, he allowed four hits, four runs, three earned runs and walked two while striking out eight Nationals batters.

But the bullpen imploded, with Jose Saurez, Justin Sterner and Yunior Tur combining to allow 14 earned runs over 3 1/3 innings.

Reliever Brady Basso pitched a scoreless eighth inning but then outfielder Carlos Cortes was brought in to handle the ninth and he was tagged for five earned runs, including a massive three-run homer by Daylen Lile.

Following Friday’s tough home loss, manager Mark Kotsay offered a blunt assessment of his team.

“There’s not a lot to explain,” Kotsay told reporters. “We played really bad baseball tonight, all around. Gage’s start, pitch count got accelerated. He had eight strikeouts but he really wasn’t locating the baseball. We talk a lot about how you can have stuff but even if you have stuff, you’ve got to locate your pitches. That was key for Gage.

“The bullpen, as far as giving up the two-run home run on a fastball up, we talked about limiting damage. We didn’t do that tonight. Talked about limiting free bases, we didn’t do that tonight. We talked about playing good defense, we didn’t do that tonight. And rightfully so, the fans let us know.”

Athletics manager Mark Kotsay speaks with the media after his team’s 23-4 loss to the Washington Nationals on Friday at Sutter Health Park.

The one bright spot for the A’s was top prospect Tommy White making his MLB debut and collecting his first big-league hit.

But Kotsay was matter-of-fact about what he wants to see from his players on Saturday night.

“They’ve got to come out tomorrow ready to play baseball,” Kotsay said. “This was not a great showing tonight and we’ll see how they respond. I expect a lot out of this group and tomorrow, when they come out to play the game and from a standpoint of leadership, there are guys in that room that I think they need to lean on, that they need to speak up and talk about the fight that they need to show tomorrow.”

When the A’s beat the San Diego Padres on May 24, they were 27-26 and held a 2.5-game AL West lead over the Seattle Mariners. But since then, they are 14-30 and sit eight games out of first place in the division with a 41-56 record.

The young A’s have a ton of potential, but without All-Star first baseman Nick Kurtz, the Green and Gold are struggling mightily through the dog days of summer.