You didn’t think it would be easy, did you?
The American League Wild Card standings were shuffled on Wednesday night thanks to a pair of games in the American League East.
The Yankees lost their third straight game to the Blue Jays; it was New York’s fifth straight loss overall and Toronto’s seventh straight win overall.
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At the same time, the Boston Red Sox beat the first-place Tampa Bay Rays, meaning the Yankees no longer lead the Wild-Card race.
That honor goes to the Red Sox, who are a half-game up on New York. And Toronto is just 1.5 games behind the Yankees for the second wild-card spot.
Red Sox, 80-62, +0.5
Yankees, 78-61, ---
Blue Jays, 76-62, 1.5
A pair of American League West teams remain in the wild-card race with the Seattle Mariners (76-64) 2.5 games behind the Yankees and the Oakland A’s (75-64) three games behind New York.
The Yankees’ slide is no joke: the are 1-5 on their seven-game home stand, have lost five straight games and dropped nine of their last 11 overall. Meanwhile the Blue Jays are 9-6 vs. the Yankees this season and 7-2 in the Bronx.
The Yankees can flip the script Thursday in the series finale against the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium when left-hander Nestor Cortes (2-2, 2.67) faces trade deadline pickup José Berríos (10-7, 3.55).
Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com.