Oakland A’s wild-card

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…