The last time the Oakland A’s reached the ALCS was 2006. They won the AL West division title that year, with a 93-69 record.
The 2006 A’s held their own against the other top contenders that summer, but one factor padding their overall win total was a 17-2 mark against the Seattle Mariners. They played each other 19 times, and Oakland took all but two of them.
Without that lopsided matchup, the A’s went 76-67 against the rest of the league. That’s still pretty good, but not quite division title good, more like an 86-win pace. They finished four games ahead of the second-place Angels (89 wins), so Oakland’s dominance of the Mariners played a big role in the outcome — and the Wild Card was out of the question at 95 wins, to the Tigers in the AL Central.