MLB playoffs: Updated American League Wild Card standings | Yankees leapfrog Blue Jays with Red Sox on deck

New York Yankees' Gleyber Torres, center, celebrates with Brett Gardner, right, and Giancarlo Stanton after a baseball game against the Texas Rangers Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021, in New York. The Yankees won 7-3.

And down the stretch they come.

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At this point, it’s clear the American League Wild-Card race will come down to the final week of the regular season.

On Wednesday, the New York Yankees beat the Texas Rangers, 7-3 and the Toronto Blue Jays lost to the Tampa Bay Rays, 7-1, while the front-running Boston Red Sox won their seventh straight, beating the New York Mets, 12-5.

So here’s how the current standings look:

Red Sox (88-65): +2

Yankees (86-67): ---

Blue Jays (85-67): 0.5

Seattle Mariners (83-69): 2.5

Oakland A’s (82-70): 3.5

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Here are the games of note Thursday which will impact the AL wild-card race:

Mariners @ A’s (3:37 p.m. ET)

Blue Jays @ Minnesota Twins (7:40 p.m. ET)

Here are the Wild-Card tiebreaker scenarios:

Three-team tie for two Wild-Card spots

If the Blue Jays, Yankees and Red Sox were all tied, with no other non-division winners in the AL ahead of them, the three teams would choose/receive A, B and C designations. Club A would host Club B. The winner of that game would be one Wild-Card club, while the loser would then play Club C on the road to determine the other. The winners of the two games would face each other in the Wild Card Game. The three designations are decided by head-to-head records.

Two teams tie for Wild Card

This would not involve any extra games. ... If, say, the Blue Jays and Yankees were the only two clubs in AL Wild-Card position at season’s end and had identical records, they would not play an extra game to determine who gets home-field advantage in the Wild Card Game. It would go to the team with the better head-to-head record (in that case, Toronto).

Two teams tie for the second Wild-Card spot

If, for example, the Yankees and Red Sox tied for the second AL Wild-Card spot, they’d have to play each other Monday, Oct. 4, for the right to advance to the AL Wild Card Game on Tuesday, Oct. 5. Home-field advantage would go to the team with the better head-to-head record.

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Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com.

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