American League Wild Card standings, are, well, wild: Yankees slumping, Blue Jays surging, Red Sox lurking

New York Yankees' Gary Sanchez reacts to flying out in front of Toronto Blue Jays catcher Danny Jansen during the eighth inning of a baseball game on Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021, in New York.
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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.

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