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Out of town scoreboard: Guardians walk-off Tigers again as Blue Jays fall out of a playoff spot
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Photo credit: © Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Sep 7, 2026, 14:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 7, 2026, 18:23 EDT
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Just like that, the Toronto Blue Jays have fallen out of the final wild card spot.
Sunday’s out of town scoreboard did no favours for the Blue Jays, who themselves fell 6-1 to the Kansas City Royals in the series finale. Because of that loss and a Cleveland Guardians’ victory, the Jays will enter Sacramento down a game once again.
In reality, the Blue Jays never really stood a chance against the Royals on Sunday. Spencer Arrighetti had another tough outing, giving up six earned runs over four and two-thirds innings. With the twigs, Brett Bateman notched three of the Blue Jays’ eight hits, while Josh Smith went deep again.
That said, what went on in the other games for teams still in the wild card race?

Out of town scoreboard for September 6th

As noted, the Guardians won yet again. Unsurprisingly, they defeated the Detroit Tigers in walk-off fashion, the third time they did that in the four-game series. Even worse is that at no point did the Guardians own a lead in this series, at least until the walk-off hits occurred.
This time the Tigers were only up 2-0 after the first inning, before the Guardians immediately responded with a run to cut the lead in half. They scored again in the fifth, then walked it off in the 10th. The Guardians kick off this week with a three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles, meaning a team in the race will win three games.
But are the Orioles even in the race at this point? The American League East team lost their sixth consecutive game on Sunday, falling 3-1 to the Boston Red Sox. While they opened the scoring in the bottom of the first, the Red Sox responded with three runs in the top of the second and allowed just three hits over the final eight innings.
With the loss, the Blue Jays have a three-game cushion over the Orioles, meaning the Orioles are also four games behind the Guardians for the final wild card spot.
Another team who has played mediocre baseball over their last 10 are the Texas Rangers. Unlike the Orioles, they wrapped up their series with a victory, defeating the Tampa Bay Rays 8-6. There’s something about teams the Blue Jays need to win blowing big leads, with the Rays going up 5-1 in the top of the fourth before the Rangers scored six between the fourth and the fifth innings.
With the win, the Rangers sit just one game behind the Blue Jays and two games behind the Guardians for the final wild card spot. To make matters worse, the Rangers own the tiebreaker over the Blue Jays, although the two teams play later this month. But first, the Rangers head to Seattle to take on the Mariners.
For a while, it looked as if the Mariners and Tigers were both in the hunt for the final wild card spot. However, they’re both 3-7 in their last 10 and sit at least six games back of the final playoff spot. The Minnesota Twins are approaching that point as well.
On Sunday, they fell 10-1 to the Chicago White Sox, who currently are first in the American League Central. It took until the fifth for the game to get its first run, but the White Sox eventually went up 4-1, then added six more runs between the seventh and eighth innings for the victory. Next up for the Twins is a matchup against the Tigers.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, DFOEdmonton, and DFOCalgary. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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