Texas and Seattle, lying low or eating cake?
The American League Wild Card race is a “tiebreaker” in Major League Baseball. Toronto, a team on a roll, lost. For the resting Texas and Seattle, the news couldn’t have come at a better time.
Ryu Hyun-jin’s Toronto Blue Jays lost the final game of their three-game series against the New York Yankees 3-5 on April 22 (ET). Prior to this game, Toronto had won five straight games and was firmly in second place in the wide-card race, but the end of the winning streak has caused them to falter again.
Toronto got off to a shaky start in the first inning, giving up three runs. In the bottom half of the inning, they were unable to capitalize on the Yankees’ ace, Cole. By the seventh inning, the score was 0-5 and the deficit was deep.
However, the team’s recent momentum paid off in the final inning. They scored one run in the eighth and two in the ninth to make a late comeback, but the deficit was too much. Cole’s eight innings of two-hit, nine-strikeout, one-run ball dominated the game.
Through 21 days, second-place Toronto held a one-game lead over the third-place Texas Rangers and fourth-place Seattle Mariners. Texas and Seattle had the day off, and I’m sure they were cheering as they watched the game on TV. I sat still, because Toronto’s loss cut their lead to 0.5 games.메이저사이트
You might ask, what does half a game mean, but in the tight race between the three teams, it matters a lot. Two of the three teams can qualify, because if they end up in a tie for first place, things get complicated by looking at their head-to-head record against each other. For example, Toronto trails Seattle by four games to one. They only have two games left. If they win them all, they’re still 3 games behind. However, if Toronto and Seattle finish the season tied for third place in the wild card race, Seattle will move up.
In terms of games played, only Toronto has played 153 games, while the other two teams have played 152. Based on the numbers alone, Texas and Seattle could tie Toronto if they won the one game they played less.
This weekend, Toronto hosts the first-place Tampa Bay Rays in the wild card race. Texas and Seattle play each other.