OAKLAND , Calif. — Man, this American League playoff field is starting to look more treacherous than landing the 2020 Democratic nomination for president.

Meet the 2019 A’s. Same (sort of) as the 2018 A’s.

The Yankees’ season introduction to the perennial young upstarts from Northern California did not go smoothly Tuesday night at Oakland Coliseum, as Domingo German got knocked around and Homer Bailey, of all people, quieted the visitors to the tune of a 6-2 Yankees loss, the second straight for Aaron Boone’s crew.

“First time you play them, you can’t help but think back to the last time you played them,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin, referring to last year’s AL wild-card game won by the Yankees in The Bronx. “So yeah, and there’s a bunch of Yankee fans here. Raucous crowd and the whole bit.

“[Gary] Sanchez hit the [homer], it was important that we responded, and we did. So it ended up being a really good game for us.”

Earlier in the night, some 2,900 miles away, the Rays suffered a 7-4 loss to the Mariners at Tropicana Field, and that offered a mixed blessing for the Yankees. More importantly, it meant that they maintained their 10-game AL East advantage over the perennial young upstarts from Florida’s Gulf Coast. With that, however, came a poison pill: The A’s (72-53) pulled into a virtual tie with the Rays (73-54) for the AL’s second wild card and took a one-game lead in the loss column.

Look, the Yankees would be heavily favored over either the Rays or the A’s in a best-of-five AL Division Series, and both of those teams look like underdogs against the Indians in a one-game AL wild card. Yet the Yankees’ comfortable division lead affords them the time to contemplate possibilities and scenarios. The A’s have long put an October scare into the Yankees, despite their historic inability to seal the deal, because of the talent that always seems to top their roster.

Nowadays, that talent includes Matt Olson, 25, the homegrown first baseman who neutralized Sanchez’s first-inning solo blast when, in the bottom of the inning, he crushed a first-pitch German fastball inside the right-field foul pole for a two-run homer. Olson singled and scored an insurance run in the sixth as the A’s knocked German out of the game.

“I feel like we’ve been doing that lately,” said Olson, who owns a .265/.350/.542 slash line with 26 homers. “If we give up a run or two, we come in and respond.”

In the seventh inning, Olson initiated an outstanding, 3-6-1 double play on a DJ LeMahieu grounder, spinning and firing to Marcus Semien off a slow roller down the line.

The lineup also features Mark Canha, 30, a 2014 Rule 5 selection from the Marlins (actually selected by the Rockies, then traded to the A’s) who has proven worth the time commitment. The outfielder/first baseman immediately followed Olson’s two-run, first-inning homer with a solo blast of his own, and in the sixth, he saw Olson’s single and raised it, pounding a double and eventually scoring another run, too.

Their pitching staff will remind no one of, say, the Astros’, or even the Indians’, or their own “Moneyball” run with Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito. And a reliance on the likes of Bailey (who gave up no runs besides Sanchez’s homer, striking out eight and walking none over 5 ²/₃ innings), Mike Fiers and Brett Anderson in their starting rotation, or closer Liam Hendriks (who started last year’s wild-card contest, as an opener, for the A’s), could very well prove their downfall once more. Nevertheless, it’s not a theory you necessarily want to test.

“Obviously they’re in a good position,” Olson said of the Yankees. “We feel like we should be a team in the postseason as well.”

Naturally, you can’t win the World Series without defeating some mighty competition. Within that subculture, however, exist teams you’d rather face and those you’d rather avoid.

The A’s fall into the latter category. Because one of these years, they’ll carry over their regular-season success into October. The Yankees sure as heck won’t want to be there when that happens.