By the time the 10th inning started at Fenway Park on Wednesday, Cleveland had already beaten the Tigers, so the Red Sox needed to win to avoid seeing their lead for the final wild card spot trimmed to less than two games.
Boston survived some anxious moments in the top of the 10th and then scored in the bottom of the frame to win 5-4. It allowed them to keep pace with everyone else in the AL wild card race, while peeling another day off the calendar.
Houston’s win over Texas and Seattle’s loss to Kansas City left the Red Sox tied with the Mariners for the fifth spot at 83-69.
If they finish tied — and there’s a lot of baseball to be played before that could happen — the two teams were 3-3 against each other in the regular season.
The next tiebreaker is intradivision record, pitting the Red Sox record vs. AL East and the Mariners record vs. AL West. Seattle is now 31-18 with three division games left vs. Houston, while the Red Sox are 28-18 with three AL East games vs. Tampa and three vs. Toronto. All of those are on the road for Boston and Seattle.
The wild-card-leading Yankees beat Minnesota to stay two games ahead of both the Red Sox and Mariners. Cleveland is lurking 2½ games out of the last wild card spot.
Texas’ loss puts the Rangers 4.5 games out of the last wild card with 10 games to play. That’s a lot of ground to make up in a short time.
The Blue Jays are now six games ahead of the Red Sox and four ahead of the Yankees in the AL East.
Here’s where things stand:
Red Sox record: 83-69
Games remaining: 10
ESPN Analytics: ESPN’s computer simulation gives Red Sox a 88% chance of making the playoffs — Down 3% since Tuesday.
Playoff Format
Six teams make the field. The top two division winners each get a bye in the Wild Card round. The third division winner is the No. 3 seed and plays the third wild card team. The first and second wild card teams are the No. 4 and 5 seeds and play each other. The higher seed will host all the games.
Standings
AL East
| W | L | Pct | GB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto | 89 | 63 | .586 | — |
| New York | 85 | 67 | .559 | 4 |
| Boston | 83 | 69 | .546 | 6 |
Wild Card
| W | L | Pct | WCGB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 85 | 67 | .559 | +2 |
| Seattle | 84 | 69 | .549 | — |
| Boston | 83 | 69 | .546 | — |
| Cleveland | 80 | 71 | .530 | 2½ |
Tiebreakers
The Red Sox would win tiebreaker (based on head-to-head) vs: Yankees, Astros, Guardians
The Red Sox would lose tiebreaker vs.: Blue Jays
To be determined: The Red Sox are 3-3 vs. the Mariners, who are currently a half-game up in the AL West, but could be passed by the Astros. The next tiebreaker, after head-to-head, is intradivisional record, which is still ongoing. In the unlikely event that Detroit falls out of first place and into the Wild Card picture, the Red Sox are 0-3 vs. the Tigers with three games to go.
Schedule
Wednesday’s results for AL teams in playoff contention:
Tampa Bay 2, Toronto 1
Cleveland 4, Detroit 0
Boston 5, Athletics 4, 10 innings
Kansas City 7, Seattle 5
N.Y. Yankees 10, Minnesota 5
Houston 5, Texas 2
Thursday games for AL teams in playoff contention:
Cleveland (Bibee 10-11) at Detroit (Skubal 13-5), 1:10 p.m.
Toronto (Bassitt 11-8) at Tampa Bay (Baz 9-12), 1:10 p.m.
Athletics (Ginn 3-6) at Boston (Bello 11-7), 1:35 p.m.
Seattle (Castillo 9-8) at Kansas City (Lorenzen 5-11), 2:10 p.m.
N.Y. Yankees (Fried 17-5) at Baltimore (Povich 3-7), 7:15 p.m.
Red Sox Games Remaining: 10
- Sept. 18: vs. Oakland
- Sept. 19: at Tampa Bay
- Sept. 20: at Tampa Bay
- Sept. 21: at Tampa Bay
- Sept. 23 at Toronto
- Sept. 24 at Toronto
- Sept. 25 at Toronto
- Sept. 26 vs. Detroit
- Sept. 27 vs. Detroit
- Sept-28 vs. Detroit
If the playoffs started today:
American League Byes
No. 1 Toronto, No. 2 Detroit,
Wild Card Round
Best of 3 — Games are Sept. 30, Oct. 1, 2
No. 3 Houston vs. No. 6 Boston/Seattle
No. 4 N.Y. Yankees vs. No. 5 Seattle/Boston
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