Blue Jays magic number: Toronto in danger of blowing division lead to New York Yankees
The Toronto Blue Jays’ goal of winning the AL East Division is coming right down to the wire.
The Jays suffered a 4-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night, marking a tough stretch that has seen them lose five of their last six outings.
Tuesday’s loss came with plenty of controversy, as George Springer hit a ball past third baseman Alex Bregman, which would have scored at least one run. Instead, the third base umpire called the ball foul, which isn’t a challengeable play.
The call itself, which came with the bases loaded, was a very questionable one. Making matters all the worse was that Springer was called out on strikes the very next pitch, one that appeared to be outside the zone. The strike three call ended the inning, and had Springer extremely frustrated.
With the bases loaded in a one run game with playoff implications, umpire Scott Barry robbed George Springer of a go-ahead double on a bad foul ball call.
The very next pitch. umpire Doug Eddings rang up Springer on a pitch well off the plate to end the inning.
The Blue Jays… pic.twitter.com/HmBxtxV0zm
— Umpire Auditor (@UmpireAuditor) September 24, 2025
“It’s a fair ball down the third-base line, I thought it was fair,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “People in our replay room thought it was fair, and it’s not a reviewable play. It sucks. It’s two runs there, and it’s a 2-1 game. I don’t know if it’s why we lost, things can change over the course of a game.”
Not helping the Blue Jays is the fact that the New York Yankees were able to rally in the ninth inning on Tuesday night to defeat the Chicago White Sox by a 3-2 final. Thanks to a stretch that has seen the Yankees win six of their last seven, the race for the AL East is much closer than anybody would have envisioned a week ago.
The Blue Jays continue to lead the entire American League with a 90-67 record, but are just one game up on the surging Yankees.
The magic number for the Blue Jays to clinch the division remains at four — meaning any combination of Toronto wins and New York losses adding to four will clinch the division for the Blue Jays. That includes any combination of Blue Jays wins and Yankees losses. Both teams have five games remaining on the season, with the Jays having two more games versus the Red Sox before a three-game series to end the year against the Tampa Bay Rays.
As for the Yankees, they have two games remaining against the White Sox before taking on the Baltimore Orioles in a three-game series that begins on Friday.
AL East Division standings
The earliest the Blue Jays could capture the division is Thursday. That, of course, would require them to defeat the Red Sox in each of their next two outings, while also having the Yankees drop each of their next two against the White Sox.
Should the Jays fend off the Yankees, they would, in all likelihood, skip the wild-card round and head straight to the division series. If the Yankees were to pull off the comeback and be crowned division champions, however, the Jays would be forced to play in a wild-card series, which, as of Tuesday’s standings, would be against the Red Sox.