Off-day scoreboard watching for Orioles fans

The Orioles are .5 games ahead of the Athletics for the first wild card spot, and 2.5 games ahead of the Angels, leaving a magic number of 5 with 6 games to play. They are also 3.5 games up on the Rays.

For the American League East, they are 1.5 games back of the Yankees. The half-games are all going to be cleared today with the O's off and these teams in action.

The Tigers don't really impact the Orioles' playoff chances themselves. I just think it's fascinating that the team with Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder might not make the playoffs. They have pulled a game ahead of Chicago.

Matchups for these games:

Royals (Luis Mendoza) @ Tigers (Doug Fister), game underway as of this post

Athletics (Travis Blackley) @ Rangers (Matt Harrison), 2:05pm ET

Mariners (Hisashi Iwakuma) @ Angels (Dan Haren), 3:35pm ET (CCer jobe notes that this is the MLB.TV free game of the day)

Yankees (Ivan Nova) @ Blue Jays (Brandon Morrow), 7:07pm ET

Rays (James Shields) @ White Sox (Jake Peavy), 8:10pm ET