TORONTO — Thanks to the Boston Red Sox completing a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday, we know this much: the Toronto Blue Jays will play a three-game wild card series beginning Friday, October 7.
Who will they be playing against? And where? That remains to be seen. But answers to those questions will come at some point over the next six days — sooner if the Blue Jays can string together some wins, later if they scuffle.
The good news for the Blue Jays is they’re in the driver’s seat.
They wake up Friday as sole occupants of first place in the American League wild card standings, 1.5 games ahead of the second-place Seattle Mariners, and two games up on the Tampa Bay Rays in third. Here’s how those standings look entering the weekend:
As a refresher — the first-place wild card finisher hosts all three games of one wild card series against the second-place finisher. The third-place club travels to Cleveland to be the visitor in all three games of the other set against the AL Central-champion Guardians.
The winner of the series between the top two wild card teams will go on to play the Houston Astros in the divisional round; the winner of the series in Cleveland will get the New York Yankees.
So, if the regular season ended Friday morning, the Blue Jays would host the Mariners, with the winner continuing to Houston, while the Guardians would welcome the Rays, competing to earn a spot in a divisional series beginning in the Bronx.
Of course, there are still games to be played — six each for the Blue Jays and Rays, seven for the Mariners. Toronto’s magic number to clinch the first wild card spot is six with the Mariners and five with the Rays. That means the earliest the Blue Jays could secure home field advantage is Sunday. Three Blue Jays wins combined with at least two losses by the Rays and three losses by the Mariners over that span would do it.
But it’s unlikely to be that easy. If the Blue Jays can’t take care of business against the Red Sox at Rogers Centre this weekend, and the Orioles at Camden Yards next week, the Rays, Mariners, or both could close their respective gaps. Which would be bad news for the Blue Jays, who don’t hold the edge in any tiebreaker scenarios.
At the end of the regular season, any two-team ties will be decided by head-to-head record, while a three-team tie would come down to which club has the best combined winning percentage against the other two teams. And with the Blue Jays, Mariners, and Rays all having finished their season series against one another, we know who holds the hammer in the various scenarios:
So, the Blue Jays need to finish at least one win ahead of both the Rays and Mariners if they’re going to ensure one of next weekend’s wild card series is hosted at Rogers Centre.
That will make for some intense scoreboard watching over the next six days.
The Rays open a three-game set in Houston on Friday before travelling to Boston for three more against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park starting Monday. The Mariners, meanwhile, host the Oakland Athletics this weekend and then welcome the Detroit Tigers for four next week, including a Tuesday doubleheader.
Ultimately, Toronto’s fate is in its hands. But it would take only a couple losses this weekend, and a couple wins by the Rays, Mariners, or both, to change that. All scenarios are still on the table for now. Here’s a look at each of Toronto’s potential outcomes at the end of these next six games.
Blue Jays finish first, host wild card series vs. Rays or Mariners
The Blue Jays can force this scenario without any help from elsewhere across the league by simply winning their final six games. Easier said than done, particularly considering the mental miscues and unforced errors that have sabotaged the club’s efforts of late. But with a playing-out-the-string Red Sox side coming to town this weekend, and a series with the likely-to-be-eliminated-by-then Orioles on tap next week, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
But what if the Blue Jays go 3-3 over that stretch? Then they need three Mariners losses and two by the Rays to clinch home field advantage. What if Toronto goes 2-4? Then the Mariners need to lose at least four of their final seven, while the Rays lose three of their final six. The less the Blue Jays win, the more help they’ll need to ensure a wild card series is played at Rogers Centre.
That’s why, even after clinching a postseason berth Thursday, Toronto can’t take its foot off the gas. We’ve all seen it in postseasons past — 49,000-strong packed to the Rogers Centre rafters, creating the kind of sound that causes Johnny Cueto to drop return throws, Gerrit Cole to balk, and opposition players to meltdown under the pressure of MLB’s most hell-raising atmosphere. That’s what the Blue Jays are playing for over their final six games.
Blue Jays finish second, travel to Seattle for wild card series
Seattle has a game in hand on both the Blue Jays and Rays, a discrepancy that won’t be made up until Tuesday, when the Mariners host a doubleheader against the lowly Tigers.
And if Seattle is within 2.5 games of the Blue Jays Tuesday morning, the possibility of leapfrogging into the first wild card spot will remain. That could lead to some nervous scoreboard watching for Blue Jays fans, as their club plays play the middle game of a series in Baltimore.
Of course, the last couple weeks haven’t only been nervous for Mariners fans — they’ve been maddening. MLB’s schedule makers have presented Seattle with an abundant platter of cupcakes with which to finish their season as the club plays its final 20 games against below-.500 opposition. But the Mariners have refused to consume the pastries.
After a 3-7 road trip against the 70-86 Angels, 56-100 Athletics, and 63-93 Royals, the Mariners returned home this week and were promptly shut out in the opener of a series with the 66-89 Rangers. Seattle finally got back on track with a narrow victory the next night. But it took multiple extra-inning comebacks to edge Texas in an insane, 10-9 finale on Thursday, as the Mariners continued to fumble around with their season above an open flame.
Despite all that, it’s easy to foresee the Mariners putting things back on the rails over its final two series, as they welcome the 100-loss Athletics and 92-loss Tigers to Seattle. For all their blundering, the Mariners are still the best positioned club to overtake the Blue Jays for that first wild card spot by sheer ease of schedule. Which would create a tough scenario for Toronto, as it flew across the continent to contest a series before rowdy Mariners fans watching their team play postseason baseball for the first time in 21 years.
And recent struggles or not, Seattle remains a talent-rich club capable of running out a stacked rotation of Robbie Ray (3.58 ERA), Luis Castillo (3.06), and Logan Gilbert (3.29) in a wild card series. Sensational rookie Julio Rodriguez, who’s posted a five-win season in his first trip through the league, is expected to return from a back injury in time for the playoffs, and will reassume his place atop a lineup that, not unlike Toronto’s, runs deep with hitters performing at an above league average level.
If the Mariners can get out of their own way, they can be as dangerous a postseason team as any.
Blue Jays finish second, travel to Tampa Bay for wild card series
Thanks to a two-game cushion as of Friday morning, Toronto can afford to play one game worse than Tampa Bay over the next six days and still finish with a better record.
But what if the Blue Jays play two games worse than Tampa? What if Toronto goes 3-3 over the next six while the Rays get hot and go 5-1? In that case, Tampa could edge in front of Toronto in the standings thanks to the tiebreaker they hold and potentially force the Blue Jays to travel to Tropicana Field for three games next weekend.
Did you feel that churn in the pit of your stomach? The involuntary dread at the thought of a three-game, winner-take-all series at The Trop? The Blue Jays are 87-135 in franchise history at Tropicana Field — a .392 winning percentage. Over the years, Toronto’s players and coaches, its style of play, the very uniforms it wears, have all changed. But the results have stayed the same.
Now, to be fair, this year’s Rays vintage is the least threatening we’ve seen in some time. Thanks to an unbelievable run of injuries, the club has been forced to reach deep into its renowned depth and look outside the organization for playable veterans such as David Peralta, Christian Bethancourt, and Jose Siri to plug holes around the diamond. With a 102 wRC+, this isn’t an offence a team as good as Toronto ought to fear.
But it’s still a versatile, fundamentally-sound, balanced one that’s allowed manager Kevin Cash to start 152 different batting orders and 146 defensive alignments over 156 games, and match up advantageously against tough, late-inning relievers. That’s really the Rays’ secret sauce — metamorphosing their lineup to best exploit the opposition’s weaknesses while putting its own players in the possible position to succeed.
The Rays also still feature the kind of deep, adaptable pitching staff the club’s known for, led by Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen, and Jeffrey Springs. Meanwhile, Tyler Glasnow just returned from Tommy John surgery flashing the same dominant stuff that gave him ace-like potential prior to his injury and gives Cash another weapon to use in shorter stints either as a starter or out of an already-stacked, versatile bullpen.
All told, the Blue Jays are a better team than the Rays on paper and would be the odds-on favourite to win a three-game series. But when that series is being played at Tropicana Field, all bets are off.
Blue Jays finish third, travel to Cleveland for wild card series
To find themselves in the third wild card spot and hopping over Lake Erie for a series with the Cleveland Guardians, Toronto would need to play two games worse than the Rays over the next six days, and 1.5 worse than the Mariners.
One scenario would see the Blue Jays splitting their final stretch, 3-3, while the Mariners go 5-2 and the Rays go 5-1. Or, if the Blue Jays go cold and lose four of their final six, the Mariners would need only a 4-3 record, and the Rays only 4-2, to knock Toronto down to third.
Ultimately, the Blue Jays would need to scuffle at the worst time while the Mariners and Rays get hot at the best time. But that’s well within the realm of possibility when you’re looking at a two-series stretch of baseball. The Blue Jays have split or lost their last three series, going 4-5 in the process. And one of those wins was a 10th-inning walk-off. Anything can happen.
And yet, while the run of poor play necessary to make this scenario occur would be an unfortunate way for the Blue Jays to enter the postseason, there’s a case to be made it wouldn’t be the club’s worst outcome.
Cleveland’s averaging only 4.3 runs per game this season — fewer than the 89-loss Rangers and 91-loss Colorado Rockies. The Guardians offence has produced a 98 wRC+, the lowest of any postseason-bound club by a mile. Its 123 home runs are the second fewest in baseball to the 92-loss Tigers. Its 33 per cent hard-hit rate and 4.8 per cent barrel rate are dead last.
Meanwhile, Toronto’s second among AL teams in runs per games and first in wRC+, hard-hit rate, and barrel rate. The Blue Jays have five hitters with 20 or more homers — Cleveland has one. And while the Guardians and Blue Jays have near identical records, Cleveland’s gotten there while playing 110 games against teams below .500. Toronto’s played sub-.500 teams only 71 times while out-scoring Cleveland by a half-run per game.
A three-game playoff rotation of Shane Bieber, Triston McKenzie, and Cal Quantrill supported by a bullpen with a collective 3.04 ERA would certainly by a challenge. But with a lineup regularly featuring some combination of Owen Miller (85 wRC+), Gabriel Arias (61), Myles Straw (63), and one of Austin Hedges (43) or Luke Maile (75) as its bottom three hitters, the Guardians are essentially giving away outs a third of the time they’re at the plate.
if the Blue Jays can muster even four runs per game against Cleveland’s pitching, they can feel pretty good about their ability to contain its anemic offence. Dropping to third in the wild card standings wouldn’t be the best way for Toronto to back into the playoffs. But it might produce the best matchup.
MONTREAL – On a night when New York’s top line was missing in action, the bit players grabbed the spotlight and led the Rangers to a commanding 7-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
“That’s the kind of team we have,” said Filip Chytil, who led the Rangers with a pair of power-play goals Tuesday. “The guys on the top line had chances but when they don’t score we have three other lines to pick up the slack.”
The Rangers’ dominance was reflected in the amount of time they spent in the Canadiens zone and their 45-23 edge in shots.
“If you’ve watched us practice, you know that’s something we work on all the time,” said Chytil. “When we get the puck, we want to hold on to it.”
The Rangers grabbed a 2-0 lead on goals by Mika Zibanejad at the 56-second mark and Jonny Brodzinski at 2:05, but it was Montreal which pressed the play in the first minute.
“I thought we had a good start but they turned it around on us,” said Montreal coach Martin St. Louis.
Lane Hutson controlled the puck off the opening faceoff and had two early shots, both of which were blocked by New York’s Jacob Trouba.
“That was huge for us,” said Rangers coach Peter Laviolette. “We know (Trouba) can generate offence but he can come up with those big defensive plays.”
Montreal goalie Sam Montembeault exited at 11:05 of the first period after giving up four goals on 10 shots. Zibanejad, Brodzinski, Chytil and Reilly Smith all scored on the Habs’ starter.
His replacement, Cayden Primeau, stopped 33 of 35 shots, giving up goals to Braden Schneider, Kaapo Kakko and Chytil.
Nick Suzuki scored both of the Montreal goals, his first strikes of the season
“It didn’t really feel like a 7-2 game until the end there when you look up at the scoreboard,” Suzuki said. “But we obviously keep digging ourselves these holes, and against a good team like that, our details early on have to be really sharp. And we were definitely a little sleepy coming out and they jumped on us.”
Hutson led the Canadiens in ice time with 24:10 but this wasn’t one of his better games. Smith scored on a breakaway after taking the puck off Hutson’s stick and the rookie was minus-4 for the night.
After Tuesday’s morning practice, the Canadiens announced forward Juraj Slafkovsky will miss at least a week with an upper-body injury. Defenceman Kaiden Guhle missed a second consecutive game with an upper-body injury but the team said it isn’t a long-term ailment.
The injury situation didn’t get any better after Trouba flattened Justin Barron at 7:11 of the third period. Barron didn’t return to the ice but there was no immediate word on his condition.
The Rangers welcomed back defenceman Ryan Lindgren, who made his season debut after missing five games with a jaw injury.
Before the game, 14 players from the Canadiens’ team that won four consecutive Stanley Cups between 1976 and 1979 were introduced at the Bell Centre. Among them were Hockey Hall of Fame members Yvan Cournoyer, Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe, Bob Gainey and Ken Dryden.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2024.
Shohei Ohtani’s 50th home run ball has sold at auction for nearly $4.4 million, a record high price not just for a baseball, but for any ball in any sport, the auctioneer said Wednesday.
“We received bids from around the world, a testament to the significance of this iconic collectible and Ohtani’s impact on sports, and I’m thrilled for the winning bidder,” Ken Goldin, the founder and CEO of auctioneer Goldin Auctions said in a statement.
The auction opened on Sept. 27 with a starting bid of $500,000 and closed just after midnight on Wednesday. The auctioneer said it could not disclose any information about the winning bidder.
The auction has been overshadowed by the litigation over ownership of the ball. Christian Zacek walked out of Miami’s LoanDepot Park with the ball after gaining possession in the left-field stands. Max Matus and Joseph Davidov each claim in separate lawsuits that they grabbed the ball first.
All the parties involved in the litigation agreed that the auction should continue.
Matus’ lawsuit claims that the Florida resident — who was celebrating his 18th birthday — gained possession of the Ohtani ball before Zacek took it away. Davidov claims in his suit that he was able to “firmly and completely grab the ball in his left hand while it was on the ground, successfully obtaining possession of the 50/50 ball.”
Ohtani and the Dodgers are preparing for Game 1 of the World Series scheduled for Friday night.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James gave his 20-year-old son a pep talk before they rose from the Lakers bench. Amid rising cheers, they walked together to the scorer’s table — and then they stepped straight into basketball history.
LeBron and Bronny became the first father and son to play in the NBA together Tuesday night during the Los Angeles Lakers ‘ season opener, fulfilling a dream set out a few years ago by LeBron, the top scorer in league history.
“That moment, us being at the scorer’s table together and checking in together, it’s a moment I’m never going to forget,” LeBron said. “No matter how old I get, no matter how my memory may fade as I get older or whatever, I will never forget that moment.”
Father and son checked into the game against Minnesota simultaneously with four minutes left in the second quarter, prompting a big ovation from a home crowd aware of the enormity of the milestone. The 39-year-old LeBron had already started the game and played 13 minutes before he teamed up with his 20-year-old son for about 2 1/2 minutes of action.
LeBron James is one of the greatest players in NBA history, a four-time champion and 20-time All-Star, while LeBron James Jr. was a second-round pick by the Lakers last summer. They are the first father and son to play in the world’s top basketball league at the same time, let alone on the same team.
“Y’all ready? You see the intensity, right? Just play carefree, though,” father told son on the bench before they checked in, an exchange captured by the TNT cameras and microphones. “Don’t worry about mistakes. Just go out and play hard.”
Their time on court together was fast and furious, just as LeBron promised.
LeBron, who finished the night with 16 points, missed two perimeter shots before making a dunk. Bronny had an early offensive rebound and missed a tip-in, and his first NBA jump shot moments later was a 3-pointer that came up just short. He checked out one possession later with 1:19 left in the second quarter, getting another ovation.
“(I) tried not to focus on everything that’s going on around me, and tried to focus on going in as a rookie and not trying to mess up,” Bronny said. “But yeah, I totally did feel the energy, and I appreciate Laker Nation for showing the support for me and my dad.”
After the final whistle on the Lakers’ first opening-night victory in LeBron’s seven seasons with the team, father and son also headed to the locker room together — but not before stopping in the tunnel to hug Savannah James, LeBron’s wife and Bronny’s mother. The entire family was in attendance to watch history — on little sister Zhuri’s 10th birthday, no less.
Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. also were courtside at the Lakers’ downtown arena to witness the same history they made in Major League Baseball. The two sluggers played 51 games together for the Seattle Mariners in 1990 and 1991 as baseball’s first father-son duo.
LeBron first spoke about his dream to play alongside Bronny a few years ago, while his oldest son was still in high school. The dream became real after Bronny entered the draft as a teenager following one collegiate season, and the Lakers grabbed him with the 55th overall pick.
“I talked about it years and years ago, and for this moment to come, it’s pretty cool,” LeBron said. “I don’t know if it’s going to actually hit the both of us for a little minute, but when we really get to sit back and take it in, it’s pretty crazy. … But in the moment, we still had a job to do when we checked in. We wasn’t trying to make it a circus. We wasn’t trying to make it about us. We wanted to make it about the team.”
LeBron and Bronny joined a small club of father-son professional athletes who played together. The Griffeys made history 34 years ago, and they even homered in the same game on Sept. 14, 1990.
Baseball Hall of Famer Tim Raines and his namesake son also accomplished the feat with the Baltimore Orioles in 2001.
In hockey, Gordie Howe played alongside his two sons, Mark and Marty, with the WHA’s Houston Aeros and Team Canada before one NHL season together on the Hartford Whalers in 1979-80, when Gordie was 51.
While the other family pairings on this list happened late in the fathers’ careers, LeBron shows no signs of slowing down or regressing as he begins his NBA record-tying 22nd season.
LeBron averaged more than 25 points per game last year for his 20th consecutive season, and he remains the most important player on the Lakers alongside Anthony Davis as they attempt to recapture the form that won a championship in 2020 and got them to the Western Conference finals in 2023.
Bronny survived cardiac arrest and open heart surgery in the summer of 2023, and he went on to play a truncated freshman season at the University of Southern California. He declared for the draft anyway, and the Lakers eagerly used the fourth-to-last pick in the draft on the 6-foot-2 guard.
LeBron spent the summer in Europe with the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the Paris Olympics, while Bronny played for the Lakers in summer league. They started practicing together with the Lakers before training camp.
The duo first played together in the preseason, logging four minutes during a game against Phoenix just outside Palm Springs earlier this month.
“It’s been a treat,” LeBron said at Tuesday’s morning shootaround. “In preseason, the practices, just every day … bringing him up to speed of what this professional life is all about, and how to prepare every day as a professional.”
The Lakers were fully aware of the history they would make with this pairing, and coach JJ Redick spoke with the Jameses recently about a plan to make it happen early in the regular season.
The presence of the Griffeys likely made it an inevitability for opening night, even though Redick said the Lakers still wanted it “to happen naturally, in the flow of the game.”
The Lakers have declined to speculate on how long Bronny will stay on their NBA roster. Los Angeles already has three other small guards on its roster, and Bronny likely needs regular playing time to raise his game to a consistent NBA standard.
Those factors add up to indicate Bronny is likely to join the affiliate South Bay Lakers of the G League at some point soon. LeBron and Redick have both spoken positively about the South Bay team, saying that player development is a key part of the Lakers organization.
Miami forward Kevin Love, who knew all the James children — Bronny, Bryce and Zhuri — from his time as LeBron’s teammate in Cleveland, said it was “an unbelievable moment” to see father and son playing together.
“I grew up a Mariners fan, so I got to see Griffey and then Griffey Sr. But this is different, because LeBron is still a top-five player in the league,” Love said. “This game, man. It’s why we have that ($76 billion) TV deal. The storylines and the things that happen like this, it’s an unbelievable story. This is really cool to see.”
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AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed.
