Party Poopers: LA Keeps A's from Clinching

  OAKLAND — This isn't helping the A's reputation as a team unable to finish off an oppponent. True, those nine straight losses in potential clinching games came in the playoffs. This is the regular season, it's only been potential clinchers they've lost, and they still have another week's worth of games to win the American League West. But even if only five players remain from the 2003 team that blew three chances to end the Red Sox season in the division series, and only two players were in an A's uniform for all nine losses, the losses the last two days weren't a good omen. The A's didn't clinch the AL West on Sunday, their final chance to do it at the Coliseum, as pitcher Ervin Santana was even more dominant than John Lackey a day earlier, leading the Angels to a 7-1 victory. Are all those failed clinchers from 2000-2003 in the back of the A's collective mind?