Any combination of º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøwins and New York losses adding to five would give the Jays the division. That means the earliest the Jays can clinch would be Wednesday night when they host the Boston Red Sox.
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While º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøis still in the driver’s seat, fans still scarred by the Jays’ 1987 collapse (up 3 1/2 games with seven days left, only to lose the division to the Tigers on the last day of the season) are starting to get a little nervous.
Meanwhile, Jays fans will have to wait another day for º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøto merely clinch a playoff berth. While that magic number remains at three, º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøcould have clinched it with a win Saturday night because the teams chasing them for the final wild-card berth play each other and face some guaranteed losses. But it went for naught as º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍølost 2-1 to Kansas City.
AL standings snapshot
º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍø(89-66) has a two-game lead over the Yankees (87-68) in the AL East, and is three games ahead of Seattle Mariners (86-69) and four ahead of the struggling Detroit Tigers (85-70) among division leaders.
The Jays hold the tiebreaker over the other three teams, so in reality, º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøis up three games on New York, four games on Seattle and five on Detroit.
The top two division winners in the league skip the wild-card round and head straight to the division series. The team with the best record gains home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs.
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What’s incredible to note is that the Tigers were 10.5 games ahead of the Cleveland Guardians on Sept. 1, and Detroit now just holds a one-game lead. The red-hot Guardians (84-71) have won 10 straight and the two teams play each other in a three-game series starting Tuesday. Cleveland is also tied with Houston for the final wild-card spot, with the Guardians holding the tiebreaker.
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