After a 10-1 drubbing against the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday, the Blue Jays are now two games back.
On Tuesday night, the Toronto Blue Jays were pummeled 10-1 by the Detroit Tigers at Rogers Centre, marking the second straight loss against the sub-.500 American League Central foes.
The Blue Jays are also back under .500 themselves at 75-77. More importantly, they are now two games back of the Cleveland Guardians in the American League wild card race. There are just 10 games left in the season.
However, there are two new worries for the Blue Jays in this whole thing.
1) They are now behind the Texas Rangers
The Rangers have won three consecutive games to pull into the "first team out" spot. They are 1.5 games back of the Guardians and 0.5 games ahead of the Blue Jays.
Is it the world's biggest deal? No. Why? Because the Blue Jays play the Rangers this weekend and have a chance to beat them directly in order to pick up ground/separate. However, the fact they are now trailing Texas gives them little to no margin for error in that series.
If they even had one anyways.
Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. watches play against the Detroit Tigers from the bench in the first inning at Rogers Centre. Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images2) They also need to worry about the Chicago White Sox
So, while the Guardians lead the battle for wild card No. 3, they also have their sites set on winning the American League Central. Currently, they trail the Chicago White Sox by 0.5 games in that race. They could pass Chicago as early as Wednesday night.
But it should be noted that if they do, and if the White Sox become the team in the wild card race, that's bad for the Jays.
The Blue Jays have the tiebreaker over Cleveland but they do not have it over the White Sox after going 1-5 against them this season. So, the Jays should be rooting hard for the White Sox on Wednesday.
A Guardians loss gives the Jays a chance to pick up a game, and pushes them 1.5 games back in their own division where this situation doesn't matter as much.
Up next for the Jays
The Tigers and Blue Jays will finish out their series on Wednesday afternoon with first pitch coming at 3:07 p.m. ET. The Tigers will go with the hard-throwing Keider Montero, who has often worked in a hybrid role for them.
He's 9-8 with a 3.55 ERA. On the mound for the Blue Jays is Max Scherzer. He's 2-8 with a 6.38 ERA. He's been better of late, but he was roughed up by the Orioles in his last time out. He gave up six earned runs in five innings.
