The Tampa Bay Rays moved to within two games of idle Boston for the American League wild card lead after beating the New York Yankees 15-8 Thursday in New York.
There are six games left in the regular season; Tampa Bay now plays Toronto while the Red Sox face New York for the weekend.
In other action, the magic number for Texas to clinch the AL West is two even though it lost against Oakland. Second place Los Angeles also lost to Toronto and the Angels are now three games out in the wild card as well. Texas plays Seattle while LA faces Oakland.
In the National League, St.Louis blew a 6-2 ninth inning lead and lost to New York 8-6 to push them two games behind idle Atlanta for the NL wild card. The loss also gives NL Central leader Milwaukee a magic number of two to clinch the division.
Atlanta is at Washington for the weekend while Chicago is at St.Louis. San Francisco lost Thursday, severely damaging their wild card chances.