The Blue Jays were able to do next to nothing in the first of a three-game series against the Texas Rangers on Friday.
The Toronto Blue Jays entered this weekend's series against the Texas Rangers in partial control of their own destiny.
The Blue Jays and Rangers, who played the first of the three-game set Friday at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, both began the day two days out of the final wild card spot in the American League, behind the Chicago White Sox.
The White Sox lost their game their game against the Detroit Tigers on Friday by a score of 11-8, meaning the winner of the game between Texas and Toronto would move up to one game behind for the wild card spot while the loser would stay in the same position it began Friday in.
Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, it was the Rangers that took the first of the three-game set. The home team prevailed 7-1.
The struggles started early. Even of Toronto's most consistent players, American League Cy Young candidate Dylan Cease, wasn't his usual form.
Cease ended up finishing with his shortest outing of the year. The 2026 All-Star struck out three batters, walked six and allowed four runs (one earned) on three hits in 2.2 innings pitched. He threw 74 pitches, just 36 of which were strikes.
Before Cease was pulled, Texas scored four runs in the bottom of the second. Wyatt Langford and Jake Burger scored two runs on a throwing error attributed to Blue Jays shortstop Ernie Clement, Nicky Lopez scored on a sacrifice fly hit by Ezequiel Duran and Corey Seager hit an RBI double to bring home Evan Carter and round out the scoring in the inning.
Toronto briefly cut its deficit down to 4-1 in the in the top of the fifth after Myles Straw hit an RBI double.
The Rangers bolstered their lead back to four runs with a sac fly hit by Burger in the bottom of the fifth.
Langford was walked with the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth and Burger hit an RBI double for the eventual final of 7-1.
The Blue Jays will have two more games in this current series against Texas and could still earn a share of the final wild card spot if they win out and Chicago drops its final two games of the series against Detroit.
Toronto will play the Rangers in the second of the three-game series at 5:05 p.m. ET on Saturday at Globe Life FIeld.
