Will Blue Jays be First Team to Claim Playoff Spot in American League?
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The National League playoff picture is starting to coalesce and it couldn't be further from what is going on in the American League.
The Toronto Blue Jays have sat at the top of the AL East for quite some time, but the race is far from over. There might be only eight games left on the year, but both the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are still within striking distance.
The Jays have the best record in the AL as they find themselves one game under 90 wins. However, the team went from a six-game winning streak to a three-game losing streak going into Saturday's game with the Kansas City Royals. It would be hard to imagine that the ballclub isn't the first to get their spot in October, but it hasn't happened quite yet.
The Blue Jays had a chance to clinch on Friday, but they had to win, along with losses from two of Detroit, Boston and Cleveland. Logically, the Blue Jays, at minimum, need to win on Saturday to clinch that playoff berth.
Rest of Blue Jays Regular Season
The Blue Jays kryptonite this season has been when they travel outside of Canada to an opponent's stadium. Luckily, their last road trip of the regular season is about over and they can go into the postseason riding the high that they seem to get every time they play at Rogers Centre.
The Jays are looking to return home as they try to take a series win against the Royals, which ends on Sunday. They are going to have to win two straight after dropping the opener if they want to take the overall win and snap the three-game losing streak. Shane Bieber will take the mound on Saturday in his sixth start of the season. Bieber has been excellent since returning to the majors from his Tommy John surgery and could be exactly what the team needs to finally solidify their spot.
It'll be a day off before a duel with their division rivals, the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox will be out for blood when they head to Toronto. Currently the Sox are in the hunt for the final wild card berth so those games will be critical. The Blue Jays offense at home (and in general) has been fairly unbeatable this season.
Toronto has arguably been one of the best teams in baseball in the second half of the season. The AL East has been quite the battle down the stretch and it will come down to the wire. However, the organization is very close to securing play in October which will hopefully come before the team heads home to Rogers Centre.
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Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.