OAKLAND (AP) — Support his big moves or not, Billy Beane made one thing perfectly clear: The Oakland Athletics’ season probably would have ended sooner without Jon Lester a part of it.Oakland had the man on the mound it traded for to shine in these very moments, and the A’s summed up their topsy-turvy season in a single game, over a span of innings — and extra innings.A roster of tired, banged-up bodies that owned baseball’s best record as recently as mid-August and stumbled through September is now headed into the offseason after a 9-8, 12-inning loss to the Kansas City Royals in Tuesday’s wild-card game.Beane went all in on July 31, dealing slugging left fielder Yoenis Cespedes to the Boston Red Sox for Lester, the veteran left-hander who seemed poised to pitch his team into the division series before Oakland collapsed once more late this season.“Simply put, if we don’t have Jon Lester, I don’t think we make the playoffs,” Beane said Wednesday as players packed up their belongings in a quiet clubhouse.The small-budget A’s beat out the big spenders in the Lester sweepstakes. Then Wednesday, Beane bid Lester a likely farewell as he heads off for a big-money contract elsewhere.An offense that had been prolific to that point almost immediately went into a long funk, sparking questions and scrutiny about Beane’s decision to part ways with someone as dynamic in the middle of the order as Cespedes, the two-time reigning Home Run Derby champ. The Cuban defector signed a $36 million, four-year contract before the 2012 season.Manager Bob Melvin handed the ball to Lester on Tuesday with the season on the line and Oakland built him a nice lead that appeared would be plenty, and the recent struggles might all be forgotten as things started fresh.