OAKLAND, CALIF. ? It’s the playoff series the baseball hierarchy never expected to see: two small-market teams making it big.

Just months ago, the Minnesota Twins were destined for elimination. And the Oakland Athletics, well, they just keep finding a way to get by and win on a low budget.

Now these two are meeting in the first round of the playoffs, with Game 1 of the best-of-five AL division series today at the Coliseum.

When it’s finished, it will mark the first time a team with a payroll in baseball’s bottom half has won a round in the postseason since the playoff format was altered in 1995.

“Both teams are similar in the fact of a lot of homegrown talent,” A’s first baseman Scott Hatteberg said. “You really have to look at the development part of the organization.

“You don’t see it very often any more. A lot of teams just go out and buy players, and this team is built from within. You have got to give general managers credit for getting certain guys to fill holes, and then you are able to compete.”

Commissioner Bud Selig didn’t have competition in mind for Minnesota. Instead, he was thinking about contraction. Last November, he announced his plans to shut down two franchises, including the Twins. Instead, when a potential work stoppage was averted Aug. 30, the Twins were given new life, at least for four years anyway.

“We got to spring training, that was an accomplishment,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

Under the new labor contract, no teams can be eliminated through the 2006 season. Owners tried to fold the Twins and Montreal Expos after last season, and Selig had indicated they would try it again this year.

“We weren’t far away from that either,” Hatteberg said. “It’s nice and it’s good to see. Baseball at this time of year is really good anyway, but I think it’s extra special. … For those people that were trying to get rid of them, it will be extra special for us to play and have them watch.”

Both the A’s and Twins clinched in the clubhouses of last year’s division champs the A’s at Seattle’s Safeco Field, and the Twins at Cleveland’s Jacobs Field.

This is a big deal for these two franchises.

With all the talk about competitive imbalance, the A’s and Twins won their divisions despite starting the season with two of the four lowest payrolls in the sport. The Twins were 27th out of the 30 teams, the A’s 28th.

But because of sharp management decisions and lots of young talent, they have succeeded.