Blue Jays pull within half a game of the wild card
Toronto beat Cleveland 6-3 on September 3 to take the series finale and move within a half-game of the final AL wild-card spot, with Jameson Taillon returning from the injured list tonight in Kansas City.
Lukes' bases-loaded double swings the finale
Cleveland beat Toronto 6-1 on September 1 to open the series, but the Blue Jays answered with an 11-0 win on September 2 and closed it out 6-3 on September 3. Nathan Lukes' bases-loaded double sparked a four-run fifth inning in the finale that put the game away, and Brett Bateman went 3-for-5 in the win.
Guardians1-6Guardians11-0Guardians6-3The series win pushed Toronto to 4-1 in its last five games and lifted the club to 70-71 on the season, a record that looked far worse a week ago than it does with the Guardians now behind them.
Toronto now owns the season tiebreaker over Cleveland
The Blue Jays sit a half-game back of both Cleveland and Texas for the final AL wild-card spot, with an elimination number of 9. Baltimore is 1.5 games back with an elimination number of 8, Minnesota sits 3 games out and Seattle 4.5 back, while New York and Boston hold the top two spots comfortably at plus-10 and plus-5.5 games, respectively.
Taking two of three from Cleveland also means Toronto now holds the season series tiebreaker over the club it is chasing for that spot, which matters if the two finish level. Mitch Bannon told Foul Territory TV the Blue Jays need their best month of the season in September and "can't afford a bad week" — this one, at least, they didn't.
Upcoming
Jameson Taillon (2-6, 5.68 ERA) is back off the injured list to start for Toronto, after Mitch Bannon of The Athletic reported his forearm bullpen session went well and put him in line for Friday's start. He'll face Daniel Lynch IV (4-4, 3.06 ERA), who lasted just 3.1 innings in his last outing against this same Cleveland team.
The Blue Jays are in Kansas City tonight to open a three-game set with the Royals.
Kansas City is favored at home, and the market expects a high-scoring game — a fair read given Taillon's ERA and a Royals lineup facing a pitcher working back from injury. For the number to hold, Toronto's bats need to carry the load again while Taillon looks for length in his first start back.