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With just two weeks left in the regular season, let's take a look at the magic number needed for the Toronto Blue Jays to clinch a playoff berth first, and then the American League East.
Baseball Blue Jays vs. Orioles: Shane Bieber strikes back for series sweep
Sunday's win at the Rogers Centre capped a 5-1 homestand that started with bad news.
Baseball Blue Jays vs. Orioles: Shane Bieber strikes back for series sweep
Sunday's win at the Rogers Centre capped a 5-1 homestand that started with bad news.
Toronto's magic number to clinch a playoff berth is four. Any combination of four Jays wins or Texas Rangers losses and Toronto makes the playoffs.
Another way to think about it is this: If Toronto (87-62) wins only four more games while the Rangers (79-71) win all their remaining 12 games, they would each end up with 91 wins. Toronto owns the tiebreaker so the Jays would advance.
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Making the playoffs for the Jays has been all but certain for the last month so that's a little anticlimactic. But considering the Jays' playoff hopes virtually ended before the trade deadline last year and the team was eliminated on the last day of the 2021 regular season, it's still something to celebrate.
What fans really care about is the magic number to win the division. The Yankees fell to 83-66 with their loss on Sunday night to the Red Sox, moving the Jays' magic number to win the AL East to nine. Any combination of nine Jays wins or Yankees losses and Toronto wins the pennant.
In other words, if Toronto wins only nine more games while the Yankees win all 13 of their remaining games, they would each end up with 96 wins. Toronto owns the tiebreaker so first place would go to Jays.
*MLB has eliminated the winner-take-all game (Game 163) to determine who gets the tiebreaker.
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AL standings snapshot
Toronto has a 2.5-game lead over Detroit (85-65) in the standings for the best record in the league, and home-field advantage through the AL playoffs. The top two teams in the league would also skip the wild-card round and head straight to the division series.
The Yankees are four games back of the Jays and the Boston Red Sox (82-68) are 5.5 games back.
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Because the Jays hold the tiebreaker over the other three teams, Toronto in reality has a 3.5-game lead over Detroit, a five-game lead over New York and 6.5 games over Boston.
Blue Jays
Remaining games: 13
Strength of schedule: .500
Home games: 6 -- Red Sox (3), Rays (3)
Road games: 7 -- Rays (4), Royals (3)
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Yankees
Remaining games: 13
Strength of schedule: .468
Home games: 6 -- White Sox (3), Orioles (3)
Road games: 7 -- Twins (3), Orioles (4)
-Red Sox
Remaining games: 12
Strength of schedule: .509
Home games: 6 -- A's (3), Tigers (3)
Road games: 6 -- Rays (3), Blue Jays (3)
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-Tigers
Remaining games: 12
Strength of schedule: .498
Home games: 6 -- Guardians (3), Braves (3)
Road games: 6 -- Guardians (3), Red Sox (3)
SOURCE: Strength of schedule as determined by FanGraphs