By picking up a rare series win at Tropicana Field, the Toronto Blue Jays moved a little closer to a playoff spot.
With the Twins idle, the Blue Jays’ 5-1 win over the Rays on Thursday moved them just a half game back of Minnesota and Texas for the final wild-card spot in the American League.
The Rangers pulled level with the Twins thanks to a 2-0 win in Washington on Thursday night. Cleveland also picked up a win Thursday and sits just behind the Blue Jays in the standings.
On the flip side, both the Orioles and Mariners lost Thursday to fall further back in the wild-card race.
Here is how the standings look after Thursday’s action:
WEEKEND SCHEDULE FOR WILD-CARD CONTENDERS
New York Yankees: vs. Toronto
Boston: vs. San Francisco
Minnesota: at San Diego
Texas: vs. L.A. Angels
Toronto: at New York Yankees
Cleveland: at Colorado
Detroit: at Kansas City
Baltimore: vs. Tampa Bay
Seattle: vs. Chicago Cubs
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Kazuma Okamoto, Nathan Lukes and Daz Cameron homered, George Springer drove in two runs, and Shane Bieber pitched seven strong innings as Toronto beat Tampa.
Lukes snapped a 1-1 tie with a homer to lead off the fifth. Cameron followed with a solo shot two batters later. Lukes also made a leaping catch in right field in the seventh inning.
Bieber (5-2) retired the first nine Rays batters before Chandler Simpson beat out an infield chopper and scored the Rays’ only run on Junior Caminero’s single. Bieber allowed four hits, walked none and struck out seven.
Okamoto, who also doubled, opened the scoring by leading off the second inning with his 26th home run of the season. He leads AL rookies in RBIs (74) and extra-base hits (44), and ranks second in homers.
Three of the Jays’ six hits off Ian Seymour (9-4) were solo homers.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Jacob deGrom reached 2,000 career strikeouts in the second-fewest games and innings pitched in major league history when the Texas Rangers right-hander fanned the first two batters among his 10 K’s against the Washington Nationals on Thursday night.
DeGrom struck out Daylen Lile and Abimelec Ortiz, both of whom chased sliders below the zone. He received a standing ovation and acknowledged the applause by tapping his cap over his heart.
DeGrom allowed a second-inning single and a fifth-inning walk, both to Brady House, in six shutout innings while throwing 94 pitches. He struck out the side in the fourth, and his 10 strikeouts matched a season best.
The two-time Cy Young Award winner has 2,008 strikeouts in 1,666 1/3 innings over 272 starts since his big league debut in 2014 with the New York Mets. DeGrom has 157 strikeouts in 126 2/3 innings this season.
BALTIMORE — Gerrit Cole pitched six sharp innings, Luis García Jr. and Spencer Jones homered and the New York Yankees completed a three-game sweep in Baltimore with a 6-1 victory over the Orioles on Thursday night.
Cole (7-6) allowed four hits and a walk with eight strikeouts. A fifth-inning homer by Dylan Beavers produced the lone Baltimore run. The Yankees pulled within four games of AL East-leading Tampa Bay.
Former Blue Jay Ryan Yarbrough relieved Cole and pitched three perfect innings for his third save.
The Orioles have dropped four in a row after briefly taking sole possession of the lead in the race for the final American League wild card. Kyle Bradish (7-12) allowed three earned runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings, and Baltimore also permitted a pair of unearned runs in the third.
The Blue Jays open a series in New York against the Yankees on Friday.
CLEVELAND — Gavin Williams struck out 11 over 5 2/3 innings, José Ramírez had an RBI single in the three-run first and the Cleveland Guardians beat the San Francisco Giants 5-2 for their first home series victory in seven weeks on Thursday.
The Guardians hadn’t won a series at Progressive Field since June 26-28 against Seattle. They are 11-20 overall since the All-Star break.
Williams (12-7) fell one strikeout short of his career high, but moved into a tie for the AL lead in the category with Toronto’s Dylan Cease at 201. Canada’s Cade Smith worked a scoreless ninth for his 32nd save in 37 opportunities as Cleveland won two of three in the interleague set.
Ramírez’s single was the 1,751st hit of his career, tying Charlie Jamieson for fifth place in franchise history. Former Giants catcher Patrick Bailey and Nathaniel Lowe also drove in runs in the inning against Landen Roupp (7-13), who lost his fifth straight start.
MILWAUKEE — Garrett Mitchell and Gary Sánchez each hit two-run doubles during a six-run first inning, and MLB-best Milwaukee Brewers beat Seattle.
Mitchell also homered in the eighth, finishing 3 for 4 with three RBIs as Milwaukee took two of three from Seattle. The series included the Brewers’ 22-0 win on Tuesday night that matched the record for the biggest shutout in baseball’s modern era. Milwaukee has won seven straight home series.
George Kirby (8-10) had a nightmarish first inning, walking the leadoff batter and giving up six hits. Sánchez got the Brewers on the board and Joey Ortiz added an RBI single. Mitchell’s double made it 5-0 and David Hamilton drove in the last run with another double.
Kirby worked 3 1/3 innings, allowing six runs on nine hits.
Staked to the big lead, Brewers starter Robert Gasser lasted just 3 2/3 innings and was lifted mid-at-bat by manager Pat Murphy after falling behind in the count to Randy Arozarena. Gasser gave up four hits and four runs.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bobby Witt Jr. homered and scored three runs, and the Kansas City Royals beat the Athletics 6-2 on Thursday for their first four-game sweep of the season.
The Royals have won five straight games and earned their fourth series sweep of the season, but this was the first of four games.
The Athletics have lost 17 of their last 21.
Connor Thomas (1-1) pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief for his first major league win.
Gage Jump (5-8) allowed five runs on eight hits in four innings to take the loss.
Royals starter Randy Dobnak maneuvered through four scoreless innings, allowing 10 baserunners on six hits and four walks.
CINCINNATI — Cincinnati’s Dane Myers dropped a fly ball with two outs in the ninth, opening the flood gates in a six-run inning to give the St. Louis Cardinals a 10-9 win over the Reds.
The Reds held a 5-4 lead going into the ninth before things fell apart in the final inning. Masyn Winn and Jose Fermin scored on Myers’ error, giving St. Louis a 6-5 lead. Alec Burleson’s single drove in another run and a bases-loaded walk scored another to make it 8-5. Fermin came up for the second time in the inning and singled home two more runs to make it 10-5.
But it was far from over.
Cincinnati’s Eugenio Suárez singled home Matt McLain and Sal Stewart drove in two more runs to make it 10-8. St. Louis reliever Riley O’Brien walked Tyler Stephenson with the bases loaded and two outs, scoring Elly De La Cruz to make it a one-run game before Matt McLain lined out to end the wild back-and-forth contest.
CHICAGO — Grant Holmes took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, Austin Riley doubled and singled to drive in Atlanta’s runs, and the Braves topped the Chicago White Sox 2-0 on Thursday to end a three-game slide.
Holmes didn’t allow a hit until Andrew Benintendi lined a single to left with no outs in the seventh in the matchup between division leaders. The right-hander was relieved by Didier Fuentes after the hit, which followed a leadoff walk to Miguel Vargas.
The 30-year-old Holmes (8-5) walked three and struck out three in a six-plus inning, 94-pitch outing. Fuentes closed out the seventh by striking out the side and stranding two runners. Dylan Lee followed with a perfect eighth and Raisel Iglesias tossed a 1-2-3 ninth for his 26th save to complete a one-hitter.
Atlanta’s Mauricio Dubón had three hits and scored a run.
White Sox starter Anthony Kay (9-6) yielded two runs on five hits in six-plus innings, walking one and striking out six. Chicago has dropped three of four.