The first pitch was thrown on Aug. 11 and, seemingly in the blink of an eye, the Toronto Blue Jays' summer-in-residence at Sahlen Field ends today.
MLB's regular season finale pits the Jays against the Baltimore Orioles in a 3:07 p.m. start and it's an important game as teams jockey for their final playoff positions. All games across baseball start today between 3 and 3:15 EST regardless of time zone so teams aren't able to hold out players based on earlier games deciding their playoff fates.
The scenario for the Blue Jays (32-27) is simple: If they win today to complete a series sweep and the New York Yankees (33-26) lose in the Bronx to the playoff-bound Miami Marlins, Toronto will earn an unlikely second-place finish in the American League East based on tiebreakers and a No. 5 seed for the playoffs. That would mean a trip to either Minnesota, Chicago or Cleveland for the best-of-3 wild-card series that opens Tuesday.
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Under MLB's expanded format for 2020, all games of the series will be played at that site. The Blue Jays cannot get a top-4 seed and thus will not host any postseason games in Buffalo. The wild-card round winners then move to the American League bubbles in Los Angeles and San Diego.
If the Jays lose or the Yankees win, New York would claim either a No. 4 or 5 seed based on the results of other games. Toronto would be the No. 8 seed and travel to face No. 1 Tampa Bay.
The Blue Jays arrived here on Aug. 9 and leave immediately after today's game to get set for Tuesday's playoff opener. They have no idea if they'll be sleeping tonight in St. Petersburg, Chicago, Minneapolis or Cleveland.
The Jays are 17-8 in Sahlen Field and a win today would give them the best home winning percentage for a season in their history (18-8, .692). The current record is .675, derived from their 54-26 mark at Exhibition Stadium in 1985, their first AL East championship season.
"We've been a tight group of guys this whole time," infielder Cavan Biggio said during this homestand. "You can make it as bad as it is or as good as you want. Going into our situation not being able to play in Toronto, coming to Buffalo, playing on the road the first couple of weeks, we could have easily looked at it as, 'Man, our backs are against the wall, it's OK if we don't win this year because it's kind of a crazy year.'
"The way we took it is we're here for each of us in the locker room. I think it's shown over with guys going down, guys stepping in and picking it right up. There's a lot of tight guys on this team and it's made it a lot of fun."
Major League Baseball is coming to Sahlen Field, but significant work had to be done before the Blue Jays can play here. Here are the major upgrades made to get Sahlen Field ready for the big leagues.
The AL Central is the only division still undecided in baseball. Minnesota (36-23) has the upper hand, simply needing a win today against Cincinnati to wrap it up. And the Twins are 24-6 in Target Field, the best home record in the majors.
The White Sox (35-24), who host the Cubs, can catch the Twins and win the title on tiebreakers with a victory today and a Minnesota loss.
All eight AL qualifiers have been determined, but today is about the order of seed. Tampa Bay and Oakland are division champions while Minnesota, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, New York and Toronto are also assured of a playoff spot.
But only Tampa Bay (No. 1) and Houston (No. 6) have their seeds locked in as we head into the final day.
In the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals could cause straight chaos if they lose today to Milwaukee in Busch Stadium. And the Cardinals have been blanked by the Brewers the last two days.
The Cardinals can wrap up a berth if they win today. If they lose again, they'll have to travel to Detroit for a makeup doubleheader on Monday to determine the final two qualifiers.
The top four NL seeds and thus the wild-card round hosts are set, with division winners Los Angeles (1), Atlanta (2) and Chicago (3), and NL West second-place finisher San Diego (4). Surprising Miami and Cincinnati are also guaranteed a spot.
Still alive are St. Louis (29-28), Milwaukee (29-30), San Francisco (29-30) and Philadelphia (28-31). Two will qualify and two will go home, although things might not be settled until late Monday afternoon. The St. Louis-Detroit doubleheader will only be played if needed to determine playoff qualifiers. If the eight NL qualifiers are determined today, seeds will be determined by winning percentage and tiebreakers.Â
