Rays Lose Ground In AL Wild Card Chase With Loss To Blue Jays

The Tampa Bay Rays now find themselves on the outside looking in of the American League wild card race after losing to the Toronto Blue Jays 2-0 on Thursday.   The Rays, losers of five of six, wild card leader Oakland by two and a half games and second wild card leader Baltimore by a game and a half.

Baltimore beat Chicago 5-3 and it now goes to New York for a big AL East series.   Chicago leads the AL Central by three games after second place Detroit lost 2-1 to Kansas City in a series sweep.   Seattle beat Minnesota 5-4; the A’s dump Cleveland 12-7 and Los Angeles takes care of Boston.

In the National League, Washington now leads the NL East by five and a half games over Atlanta after an 8-1 win over St.Louis.   San Francisco increases its NL West lead over Los Angeles to four and a half games with an 8-4 win over Houston and a 2-0 loss by LA to Arizona.   The Braves lead the wild card by three games over St.Louis and the Cardinals lead Pittsburgh by a half game for the second wild card spot.

In other games, Philadelphia nips New York 3-2 and Chicago beats Milwaukee 12-11.