{"id":320804,"date":"2025-09-17T04:56:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T04:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/320804\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T04:56:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T04:56:33","slug":"five-things-blue-jays-closing-in-on-east-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/320804\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Things: Blue Jays closing in on East title"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays are the strong favourite to win the American League East Division title for the first time in a decade.<\/p>\n

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Canada\u2019s lone Major League Baseball team beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-5 on Tuesday to improve their record to 89-62. The Blue Jays are five games ahead of the New York Yankees with 12 games to play.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at five storylines as the stretch drive continues:<\/p>\n

NUMBERS GAME<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays have a chance to secure the East title well before their regular-season finale on Sept. 28 against the visiting Rays.<\/p>\n

Clinching early would let manager John Schneider give his regulars some rest and allow him to set an ideal starting rotation for the opening playoff round.<\/p>\n

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Toronto is also aiming to hold on to the top seed in the American League and secure home-field advantage through at least the best-of-seven championship series.<\/p>\n

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A top-two finish in the AL would give the Blue Jays a bye to the best-of-five division series.<\/p>\n

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MAGIC NUMBERS<\/p>\n

After Tuesday\u2019s games, the Blue Jays\u2019 magic number to clinch the East Division crown is six.<\/p>\n

Any combination of Toronto victories and losses by New York totalling that number would give the Blue Jays the title.<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s magic number to secure a playoff spot heading into Tuesday\u2019s action was four.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays had a 97.4-per cent chance of winning the division and an 11.2-per cent chance of winning the World Series, per FanGraphs odds on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

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DOWN THE STRETCH<\/p>\n

Once the series with Tampa Bay wraps on Thursday afternoon, the Blue Jays will close out their road schedule with a three-game weekend series against Kansas City.<\/p>\n

The Rays and Royals have fallen well back in the AL wild-card race, although neither team has been mathematically eliminated from post-season contention.<\/p>\n

After an off-day Monday, Toronto will kick off its final homestand Sept. 23 against Boston. The Red Sox are a good bet to earn one of the three AL wild-card berths.<\/p>\n

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Toronto and Tampa Bay will close out the campaign with a three-game set from Sept. 26-28.<\/p>\n

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TOUGH CALLS<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays will have some tough decisions ahead as they look to put the best possible lineup on the field in October.<\/p>\n

Slugger Anthony Santander has been playing with the triple-A Buffalo Bisons as he builds up ahead of a potential return to the big-league lineup after missing more than three months with a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n

Santander was signed to a lucrative five-year deal last winter after a 44-homer season with the Baltimore Orioles.<\/p>\n

On the mound, Toronto also has to decide how top prospect Trey Yesavage might fit into their plans. The 22-year-old right-hander was dominant at times in his big-league debut Monday, striking out nine batters over five-plus innings.<\/p>\n

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PLAYOFF HISTORY<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays have reached the playoffs three times over the last five years but were swept in the wild-card round on each occasion.<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s last post-season victory came in 2016 when the team reached the AL Championship Series for the second straight year.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays haven\u2019t been to the World Series since 1993, a year after they won the Fall Classic for the first time.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Blue Jays are the strong favourite to win the American League East Division title for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[5,377,10864,2554,4,185,282,70,2553],"class_list":{"0":"post-320804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-blue-jays","10":"tag-blue-jays-baseball","11":"tag-bluejays","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-toronto","15":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","16":"tag-torontobluejays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115217864126832485","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}