Out of town scoreboard: Orioles defeat Guardians, Blue Jays lose heartbreaker to Athletics
Photo credit: © Jamie Sabau-Imagn Images
Sep 8, 2026, 17:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 8, 2026, 15:25 EDT
It hasn’t happened a lot lately, but the Toronto Blue Jays have lost two consecutive games.
After dropping the series finale against the Kansas City Royals on Sunday, the Blue Jays managed to tie the game after being down 5-1 to the Athletics on Monday, just for the American League West team to walk it off.
Already a game behind the Cleveland Guardians for the final wild card spot, the Blue Jays are running out of time to surpass and get a little bit of a cushion as there are just 17 games remaining in the regular season. The Jays are back in action on Tuesday at 9:40 PM ET, with José Soriano (3.52 ERA) set to start.
That said, how did the rest of the teams in the wild card race do in the out of town scoreboard?
Out of town scoreboard for September 7th
Although the Blue Jays lost, it could’ve been worse as the Guardians also fell. Facing the Baltimore Orioles, the Guardians were down 6-1 heading into the top of the ninth before tacking on three runs thanks to a one-out, three run blast by Nathaniel Lowe.
With the loss, the Guardians hold on to the final wild card spot thanks to a 73-72 record, a game ahead of the Blue Jays, who hold the tiebreaker. With the wins, the Guardians snapped a six-game losing streak and moved to three games behind the Guardians and two behind the Blue Jays.
The two teams play again on Tuesday at 6:35 PM ET. Brandon Young (3.42 ERA) is set to start for the Orioles and Tanner Bibee (4.06 ERA) is set to start for the Guardians.
With the Guardians and Orioles facing one another and the Texas Rangers’ off-day, the only other team in the wild card race who were in action were the Minnesota Twins. They played a close game against the Detroit Tigers, but ultimately fell 5-4 despite having the go-ahead run at the plate in all of the final three innings.
The loss sees the Twins keep pace with the Guardians and are four and a half games back of the wild card spot. They’ll play again at 6:40 PM ET, with Dean Kremer (5.81 ERA) set to start for the Twins.
With the win, they are six and a half games behind the Guardians, and one game behind the Seattle Mariners. Those Mariners were off on Monday, as were the Rangers. The two American League West teams do battle on Tuesday with a 9:40 PM ET start time.
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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