The Toronto Blue Jays’ day off wasn’t kind to them on the out-of-town scoreboard.
Most of the other teams in the American League wild-card race that were in action Monday picked up a victory.
The Rangers moved into first place in the AL West with a rout of the White Sox, while the Guardians took over the final wild-card spot by beating the Angels.
It was a rough night for the idle Astros, as they fell from first place in the AL West to out of a playoff spot.
The Twins and Mariners also picked up victories, while the lone AL wild-card contender to lose was the slumping Tigers.
Here’s a look at how the standings look after Monday’s results:
Toronto: vs. Kansas City, 7:07 p.m. (Sportsnet, Sportsnet+)
Houston: at New York Yankees, 7:05 p.m. (Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet+)
New York Yankees: vs. Houston, 7:05 p.m. (Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet+)
Boston: at Miami, 6:40 p.m.
Texas: at Chicago White Sox, 7:40 p.m.
Cleveland: at Los Angeles Angels, 9:38 p.m.
Baltimore: at St. Louis, 7:45 p.m.
Minnesota: at Athletics, 9:40 p.m.
Seattle: vs. Philadelphia, 9:40 p.m. (Sportsnet+)
Detroit: vs. Tampa Bay, 6:40 p.m.
CHICAGO — Corey Seager had three hits and three RBIs, and Jake Burger and Wyatt Langford homered to lead Texas to a victory over Chicago.
Ezequiel Duran drove in two runs and Texas (66-66) outhit the AL Central leaders 14-5 to move a half-game ahead of idle Houston and take sole possession of first place in the AL West for the first time since July 30.
Kumar Rocker (5-10) pitched 5 2/3 innings for the win, allowing two runs on five hits with eight strikeouts and three walks. Robby Ahlstrom retired all four batters he faced and Jordan Montgomery finished with two perfect innings.
Joc Pederson drew a walk from José Urquidy (2-2) to start the game before scoring on Duran’s groundout. Evan Carter added a two-out RBI double for a 2-0 lead.
Brandon Nimmo robbed Andrew Benintendi of a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning to keep it 2-0.
Duran’s two-out infield hit with the bases loaded made it 3-0 in the second. Pederson was ejected by plate umpire Chris Guccione for comments from the dugout before Carter’s groundout ended the inning. Pederson — mired in an 0-for-24 slump — struck out looking and was too late trying to challenge the call to start the inning.
Tristan Peters homered for a third straight game and the 10th time this season — a two-out shot in the second off Rocker that cut it to 3-2.
Seager drove in two with a two-out double in the third for a 5-2 advantage.
Burger hit his 22nd homer leading off the fifth. Justin Foscue — who replaced Pederson — and Seager had back-to-back doubles with two outs for a 7-2 lead.
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Parker Messick pitched six innings of one-run ball and Austin Hedges hit a two-run homer in the Cleveland Guardians’ 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night.
Jo Adell hit a go-ahead single for the Guardians against his former team. Messick (10-8) gave up three hits, struck out four and walked one while extending to nine his string of consecutive starts with two or fewer runs allowed.
Through 26 starts, the rookie left-hander has a 2.50 ERA with 156 strikeouts in 155 innings.
Colin Holderman struck out three of four batters in the seventh. Hunter Gaddis tossed a scoreless eighth and Cade Smith gave up a run in the ninth before earning his 34th save.
Cleveland won its fifth straight and pulled within 2 1/2 games of the first-place Chicago White Sox in the AL Central.
SEATTLE — Cal Raleigh busted out of a season-long slump with the first three-homer game of his career Monday night.
The switch-hitting catcher capped a five-run first inning with a two-run shot off struggling Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler. Raleigh added a leadoff homer against Wheeler in the fifth and a solo drive off reliever Chase Shugart in the seventh to give him 17 home runs this season.
It was the first multihomer game of the year for Raleigh, who finished 3 for 3 with a walk in a 9-2 victory and raised his batting average from .159 to .167.
Raleigh was runner-up for the AL MVP award last year, when he led the majors with 60 home runs and added 125 RBIs.
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Zebby Matthews allowed six hits and one run over seven innings, Josh Bell drove in three runs, and the Minnesota Twins beat the Athletics 9-6 on Monday night.
Byron Buxton had three hits and scored four times, rookie Kaelen Culpepper had four hits for the first time in his 14th game, and Ryan Kreidler homered to help the Twins snap a three-game skid.
Matthews (8-8) struck out seven and gave up one walk. The right-hander has won all four of his August starts.
Tommy Nance pitched a scoreless eighth, but Yoendrys Gómez surrendered a two-run double to Jeff McNeil and back-to-back RBI doubles to Zack Gelof and Lawrence Butler in the ninth before Andrew Morris retired Tommy White on a lineout to first for his fourth save.
Kody Clemens drove in Buxton with RBI singles in the fifth and eighth innings. Culpepper singled home Bell in the eighth for the Twins’ final run.
DETROIT — Jonathan Aranda homered and Drew Rasmussen gave up three hits in six strong innings as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the slumping Detroit Tigers 4-1 on Monday night.
Tampa Bay had lost seven of its last 10, but never trailed against the Tigers, who have lost six straight and nine of 10 to fall behind in the race for the final AL wild card.
Rasmussen (14-5) allowed one run to win his seventh straight start. It is the second-longest streak in franchise history, trailing only Blake Snell’s nine-start streak in 2018.
Bryan Baker pitched the ninth for his 38th save.
Detroit starter Framber Valdez (8-9) gave up four runs — three earned — on eight hits in six innings. He walked two without striking out a batter.
Tampa Bay took a 2-0 lead in the second. Yandy Diaz led off with a single and took third when left fielder Brett Callahan misplayed Ryan Vilade’s base hit. Diaz scored on Junior Caminero’s groundout. After an infield single put runners on the corners with one out, Aranda beat out a double-play attempt, allowing Vilade to score.
In the fourth, Jorge Mateo started the inning with a double and took third on Nick Fortes’ sacrifice bunt. Chandler Simpson put down a squeeze bunt and Mateo beat third baseman Kevin McGonigle’s hurried flip to the plate.
Simpson’s bunt extended his hitting streak to 15 games.
MIAMI — Anthony Seigler hit a go-ahead triple in the ninth inning, and Boston beat Miami.
Mickey Gasper had two hits and walked twice for the Red Sox, who won their fourth straight. Boston has won 19 of 20 against teams with records of .500 or better.
Miami closer Pete Fairbanks (4-5) started the ninth but left with an injury after issuing a leadoff walk to Gasper. Fairbanks stepped off the mound and touched his throwing arm as he talked with catcher Brian Navarreto and manager Clayton McCullough.
Tyler Zuber relieved Fairbanks and allowed Seigler’s line drive toward the right field foul area that scored pinch-runner Eli White from first and snapped a 2-all tie. Nick Sogard followed with an RBI single.
Erik Miller (3-0) pitched a scoreless eighth around two singles and a walk. Aroldis Chapman closed it out for his 30th save.
The Marlins were 2 for 18 with runners in scoring position.
PHOENIX — Michael Conforto and Carson Kelly hit back-to-back homers, Kevin Gausman gave up just three hits over seven innings and the Chicago Cubs beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-0 on Monday night.
The Cubs moved to 5 1/2 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers for the NL Central lead. The Brewers were off Monday.
Conforto and Kelly hit their homers off reliever Taylor Clarke with two outs in the sixth, breaking open a tight game. Conforto’s two-run shot to right field made it 4-0 and then Kelly — who played 4 1/2 seasons with the Diamondbacks — hurt his former team with a solo smash to left.
That was plenty of support for Gausman (2-1), who cruised through the D-backs’ lineup, needing just 94 pitches to complete his seven innings. The right-hander gave up three hits and a walk while striking out six in his best outing for the Cubs since being acquired at the trade deadline from the Toronto Blue Jays.
WASHINGTON — CJ Abrams had the go-ahead RBI in a five-run fifth inning, Cade Cavalli won his fourth consecutive start and Washington defeated Colorado for its season-worst seventh consecutive loss.
Daylen Lile homered and drove in five runs for the Nationals, who had dropped three games in a row and seven of eight.
Willi Castro and Ezequiel Tovar homered for Colorado.
After going hitless for the first four innings against Rockies starter Ryan Feltner (5-8), the Nationals opened the fifth with two singles. Nasim Nuñez then laid down a sacrifice bunt toward third that Castro threw down the right-field line for an error, allowing two runs to score.
Abrams laced a double to right to drive in Nuñez and give the Nationals a 3-2 lead. Abrams stole third and scored on Abimelec Ortiz’s grounder. Lile and Brady House hit consecutive doubles to add another run.
Abrams, who missed the previous four games with a sprained ankle, went 1 for 4 with two stolen bases as Washington’s designated hitter.
SAN FRANCISCO — Rafael Devers hit a three-run homer in the second inning and the San Francisco Giants snapped a four-game losing streak by beating the Cincinnati Reds 5-0 on Monday night.
Jason Foley (1-1) worked 1 1/3 innings for the win after relieving lefty Carson Whisenhunt, who left in the third inning with pain in his pitching elbow. He was coming off an outing in which he surrendered a career-worst seven runs and nine hits over four innings of an 8-1 loss at Cleveland last Tuesday. He will have an MRI on Tuesday.
San Francisco leadoff hitter Drew Gilbert doubled in each of his first two at-bats on a cool night and well before the mist began hovering over the outfield in the middle innings.
The Giants began the game with four straight hits off right-hander Chase Burns (14-3), including Jung Hoo Lee’s RBI single followed by a run-scoring double from Turner Hill in the first. Two of Burns’ three losses this year have come in his last three outings.
There appeared to be no lingering ill will in the first meeting between the clubs since a three-game series at Cincinnati in mid-April that featured a benches-clearing brawl.
The Reds were shut out for the14th time this season, tied for the most in the majors this season.