AL Wild Card race: Will we see any shake-ups down the stretch?

September baseball is here, meaning we are one month away from the 2023 MLB postseason. The playoff races are in full effect and if fans of these teams battling for the AL Wild Card and NL Wild Card tell you they are not scoreboard-watching, chances are they are lying to you.

In the National League, there are still quite a few teams within no more than three games of a Wild Card spot. The American League, however, is different. There is just one team within three games. The Texas Rangers currently hold the final playoff spot as they have a 2.5-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays. Texas recently dropped out of first place in the west as the surging Seattle Mariners and experienced Houston Astros overtook them.

The Rangers still have a very good chance to retake that crown, but they are going to have to go on a run. The same could be said about the Blue Jays, who sit 4.0 games up on Boston and 9.5 up on New York trying to catch up to that final spot.

AL Wild Card: Toronto Blue Jays vs. the AL West

The Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays are the two teams fighting for first in the AL East. They have a pretty sizable lead on the Blue Jays at nine games. With that said, if Toronto has any plans to make a playoff push, they are going to have to catch one of the AL West teams.

That team is still up in the air as the quest for the top of the West is proving to be an exciting one and could go on until the very end. With their season series against the Astros and Mariners over and one more series against Texas, the Blue Jays don’t have a lot of good opportunities to make up ground.

Seattle owns the head-to-head against Toronto while the Blue Jays own the head-to-head against the Astros. For them to have the advantage against the Rangers, they would have to take three out of four in the final series between the two teams that begins on September 11.

Let’s say that going into that series in mid-September, the Blue Jays are still 2.5 games back, winning three out of four would have them a half-game back. With Toronto’s record against Seattle not favoring them, the Mariners taking first place would actually be the best outcome for them.

How the Seattle Mariners can help the Toronto Blue Jays

During the month of September, the Mariners play the Rangers twice, including a four-game series at home to end off the year. They also have a three-game home series against Houston. It is a high-risk, high-reward scenario if you are a Blue Jays fan. If Seattle is able to run through those series and win the West, that would put Toronto in a good spot.

The reason I even bring this up is because the Jays have not been able to go on any big runs this season and their offense, which was supposed to be near the top of the league, has seen quite a bit of inconsistency. Sometimes you need a pick-me-up late in the year and the Blue Jays getting one should make this finish even more exciting.