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The MLB postseason race is heating up, and all eyes are on the very tight Wild Card races in each league. While it may not be the absolute cluster that we have going on in the NL, the AL race holds plenty of intrigue in its own right: The AL West lead changes hands seemingly every other day, while the Toronto Blue Jays are flailing and the Tampa Bay Rays are making a charge at the AL East crown this weekend — which would knock the Baltimore Orioles back into the Wild Card picture. There’s still plenty of things that need to be settled between now and the rest of the year, so here’s a look at the up-to-the-minute AL Wild Card standings on Saturday, September 16.
AL Wild Card standings, September 16
1st Wild Card: Tampa Bay Rays — 92-57, +10.0
2nd Wild Card: Texas Rangers — 82-65, +1.0
3rd Wild Card: Seattle Mariners — 81-66, —
Toronto Blue Jays — 81-67, 0.5 GB
New York Yankees — 75-73, 6.5 GB
Boston Red Sox — 74-74, 7.5 GB
The Rangers righted the ship this week, winning four straight in Toronto to vault themselves back into the second Wild Card spot despite getting shelled in their series opener in Cleveland on Friday night. The Mariners also lost on Friday night, which saw their lead over Toronto shrink to just a half-game thanks to the Blue Jays finally snapping their skid and topping the Red Sox, 3-0. Boston is now in last in the AL East, a full 7.5 games back and more or less out of the picture after firing chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom. (The Yankees, meanwhile, kept their faint hopes alive with a ninth-inning rally in Pittsburgh on Friday night, but it’s still an extremely long-shot.)
There are two divisional races which could shake up this picture significantly. The first is out west, where the Astros are tied in the loss column with the Rangers after dropping three of four to the A’s and Royals to start the week. Houston is a bad weekend away from finding itself in real danger of missing out on the postseason entirely. In the AL East, meanwhile, the Rays have taken the first two games of their huge series with the Orioles, moving just percentage points behind Baltimore in the division. Whichever team falls short in that race, however, will almost certainly take the top Wild Card spot.