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MLB Coverage: Oakland Does It The Moneyball Way Again

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The Oakland A’s are atop the AL West, and coming into Saturday’s games, are tied with the Boston Red Sox for the best record in the American League overall. The A’s might not be the Cinderella story they were a year ago, when they outlasted the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels to win the division, but Oakland is still a team with a lot of no-names. So our MLB coverage takes a closer look at how Billy Beane’s team is still doing it in 2013.

Can The Oakland A’s Offense Push Them Over The Top?

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The Oakland A’s, like the Baltimore Orioles, keep hanging around the wild-card race and won’t go away. The A’s come into Tuesday nights’ games with a record of 65-56, just a half-game back of Baltimore for the second wild-card berth and a game ahead of Detroit. Oakland is plus-three on its well-heeled divisional rival in Los Angeles. While the A’s are similar to the Orioles in that they continue to defy a disbelieving public, they are different in one notable regarding. While Baltimore’s success is somewhat of a mystery until you look at their bullpen, everyone knows why Oakland is winning—great pitching, from the starting rotation to the back end. The questions about the offense are twofold—is it good enough to make the playoffs? And more pertinent, who the hell do they have in their lineup anyway? TheSportsNotebook will answer the latter question and take a crack at the former…

AL West Report: Oakland Gets Rare Offensive Burst

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The AL West is the focus of MLB this week, as the Rangers and Angels have split the first two games of their weekend series and will get the ESPN showcase on Sunday night. But let’s not overlook that the Oakland A’s are hanging around and sitting at 17-16 coming into Saturday’s games, 4 ½ back of Texas and 2 ½ ahead of LAA. The A’s have survived an 11-game East Coast road trip and fought their way to a 6-5 record and then split two against Detroit these past two games at home. When you hear of Oakland succeeding, you generally think pitching. But it’s the bats that are helping the A’s hang tough in the AL West right now.