Things are officially hairy for the Red Sox. After losing at home to a middling Athletics team on Thursday afternoon, Boston is just 1½ games ahead of Cleveland for the last playoff spot.
The Guardians are rolling and beat the Detroit bullpen after Tarik Skubal left. Cleveland has the game in hand with 10 games to go to Boston’s nine.
The Guardians play four at Minnesota, then host Detroit and Texas for three each to close out the season.
If Boston holds off Cleveland, they’ll likely be the No. 6 seed and would play the AL West winner. The Mariners and Astros are currently tied for first with three games left against each other.
The wild-card-leading Yankees beat Baltimore to move three games ahead of the Red Sox as home-field in the best-of-three wild-card series now seems nearly impossible for Boston.
The Blue Jays are now six games ahead of the Red Sox and four ahead of the Yankees in the AL East.
Here’s where things stand:
Red Sox record: 83-70
Games remaining: 9
Fan Graphs: Computer simulation gives Red Sox an 83% chance of making the playoffs
Playoff Format
Six teams make the field. The top two division winners each get a bye in the Wild Card round. The third division winner is the No. 3 seed and plays the third wild card team. The first and second wild card teams are the No. 4 and 5 seeds and play each other. The higher seed will host all the games.
Standings
| W | L | Pct | GB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto | 89 | 64 | .582 | — |
| New York | 86 | 67 | .562 | 3 |
| Boston | 83 | 70 | .542 | 6 |
Wild Card
| W | L | Pct | WCGB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 86 | 67 | .562 | +3 |
| Sea/Hou | 84 | 69 | .549 | +1 |
| Boston | 83 | 70 | .542 | — |
| Cleveland | 81 | 71 | .533 | 1½ |
| Texas | 79 | 74 | .516 | 4 |
*Seattle and Houston are tied both atop the AL West and for the No. 2 wild-card spot. They still have three games left against each other.
Tiebreakers
The Red Sox would win tiebreaker (based on head-to-head) vs: Yankees, Astros, Guardians
The Red Sox would lose tiebreaker vs.: Blue Jays
To be determined: The Red Sox are 3-3 vs. the Mariners. The next tiebreaker, after head-to-head, is intradivisional record, which is still ongoing. In the unlikely event that Detroit falls out of first place and into the Wild Card picture, the Red Sox are 0-3 vs. the Tigers with three games to go.
Magic Numbers:
3 — Any combination of Blue Jays wins and Red Sox losses makes winning the AL East impossible for the Red Sox.
7 —Any combination of Yankees wins and Red Sox losses makes home-field advantage in the best-of-three wild-card round impossible for the Red Sox.
8 — Any combination of Red Sox wins and Guardians losses will clinch a playoff berth for Boston.
Schedule
Thursday’s results for AL teams in playoff contention:
Cleveland 3, Detroit 1
Tampa Bay 4, Toronto 0
Athletics 5, Boston 3
Seattle 2, Kansas City 0
N.Y. Yankees 7, Baltimore 0
Friday games for AL teams in playoff contention:
Athletics (Severino 6-11) at Pittsburgh (Keller 6-14), 6:40 p.m.
Atlanta (Elder 7-10) at Detroit (Morton 9-10), 6:40 p.m.
N.Y. Yankees (Warren 8-7) at Baltimore (Rogers 8-2), 7:05 p.m.
Boston (Crochet 16-5) at Tampa Bay (Rasmussen 10-5), 7:35 p.m.
San Diego (Cease 8-11) at Chicago White Sox (Martin 6-10), 7:40 p.m.
Toronto (Scherzer 5-3) at Kansas City (Lorenzen 5-11), 7:40 p.m.
Miami (Junk 6-3) at Texas (Mahle 6-3), 8:05 p.m.
Cleveland (Messick 3-0) at Minnesota (López 5-4), 8:10 p.m.
L.A. Angels (Farris 1-1) at Colorado (Blalock 1-5), 8:10 p.m.
Seattle (Woo 14-7) at Houston (Brown 12-7), 8:10 p.m.
Red Sox Games Remaining: 10
- Sept. 19: at Tampa Bay
- Sept. 20: at Tampa Bay
- Sept. 21: at Tampa Bay
- Sept. 23 at Toronto
- Sept. 24 at Toronto
- Sept. 25 at Toronto
- Sept. 26 vs. Detroit
- Sept. 27 vs. Detroit
- Sept-28 vs. Detroit
If the playoffs started today:
American League Byes
No. 1 Toronto, No. 2 Detroit,
Wild Card Round
Best of 3 — Games are Sept. 30, Oct. 1, 2
No. 3 Houston/Seattle vs. No. 6 Boston
No. 4 N.Y. Yankees vs. No. 5 Houston/Seattle
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