The Red Sox kept themselves in the American League East race for another day and moved closer to clinching a postseason berth with their win over the Blue Jays on Wednesday.
The Red Sox win kept them in second place in the wild card, 2 games ahead of the third-place Tigers and 3 games ahead of the Astros, who lost to the A’s.
Boston could clinch a playoff berth on Thursday before they even take the field if the Astros lose to the A’s at 3:35. If not the Red Sox would get in with a win vs. Toronto at 7 p.m.
The Blue Jays’ loss dropped them into a tie with the Yankees. Both teams, who have each clinched a playoff spot, are 90-68. Toronto holds the tie-breaker.
If the Blue Jays drop into the Wild Card, the Red Sox could be playing Toronto next week in the wild card round.
Here’s where things stand:
Red Sox record: 87-71
Games remaining: 4
Fan Graphs: Computer simulation gives the Red Sox an 98.4% 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.
AL East Standings
| W | L | Pct | GB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| z-New York | 90 | 68 | .570 | — |
| z-Toronto | 90 | 68 | .570 | — |
| Boston | 87 | 71 | .551 | 3 |
Wild Card
| W | L | Pct | WCGB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| z-New York | 90 | 68 | .570 | +5 |
| Boston | 87 | 71 | .551 | +2 |
| Detroit | 85 | 73 | .538 | — |
| Houston | 84 | 74 | .532 | 0.5 |
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. The Red Sox are 0-3 vs. the Tigers with three games to go.
Magic Numbers:
1 — Any combination of Blue Jays wins and Red Sox losses makes winning the AL East impossible for the Red Sox.
2 —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.
1— Any combination of Red Sox wins and Astros losses clinches a playoff berth for Boston.
Schedule
Wednesday’s results for AL teams in playoff contention:.
Tampa Bay 6, Baltimore 2
Boston 7, Toronto 1
N.Y. Yankees 8, Chicago White Sox 1
Cleveland 5, Detroit 1
Seattle 9, Colorado 2
Athletics 6, Houston 0
Thursday games for AL teams in playoff contention:
Houston (Valdez 12-11) at Athletics (Ginn 4-6), 3:35 p.m.
Detroit (TBD) at Cleveland (Messick 3-0), 6:40 p.m.
Chicago White Sox (Martin 7-10) at N.Y. Yankees (Rodón 17-9), 7:05 p.m.
Boston (Bello 11-8) at Toronto (TBD), 7:07 p.m.
Colorado (Blalock 2-5) at Seattle (Woo 15-7), 9:40 p.m..
Red Sox Games Remaining: 4
- Thursday at Toronto
- Friday vs. Detroit
- Saturday vs. Detroit
- Sunday vs. Detroit
If the playoffs started today:
Wild Card Round
Byes: No. 1 Toronto, No. 2 Seattle
Best of 3:
No. 3 Cleveland vs. No. 6 Detroit
No. 4 N.Y. Yankees vs. No. 5 Boston
Best of three, all games at the better seed’s stadium
- Game 1: Tuesday, Sept. 30
- Game 2: Wednesday, Oct. 1
- Game 3: Thursday, Oct. 2
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