TORONTO -- The Blue Jays salvaged one game from their series against the Tigers, but they’ve left themselves with some serious work to do.
Wednesday afternoon’s 5-1 win at Rogers Centre leaves the Blue Jays 1 1/2 games back of the final AL Wild Card spot, now held by the White Sox. The Rangers are also in a tie with the Blue Jays and play later tonight before they host Toronto for a major series in Arlington beginning on Friday.
“We’ll try to go 1-0 every day,” manager John Schneider said, sticking to his mantra. “That’s it. It’s going to be another tough series. It will be a good off-day for everyone tomorrow, but every day and every series is going to be tough and really important.”
This is what mattered most from Wednesday’s win and the crowded Wild Card race:
1. A brand-new AL Wild Card picture
The flip atop the AL Central is crucial to the Blue Jays and their postseason hopes. The Guardians now lead the Central, dropping the White Sox back into the Wild Card race in the final spot.
The White Sox begin a four-game series against the Tigers on Thursday at home. After the opener in that series, both the White Sox and Blue Jays have nine games remaining, so we’ll be able to deal in round numbers again. The key to all of this, though, is the tiebreaker.
Chicago holds the tiebreaker over Toronto, which changes the equation. Toronto held the tiebreaker over Cleveland, which meant that a tie for the third Wild Card spot would have been enough, but that’s no longer the case if the Blue Jays are chasing Chicago. Texas is also right in the middle of this race now, and Toronto does not hold the tiebreaker there, either.
The simple version? The Blue Jays can no longer back their way into this. The clock is running too low now, and the underwhelming AL Wild Card race will no longer keep them afloat. The only path to the postseason is for the Blue Jays to go on a run.
2. Scherzer helps keep the hope alive
Max Scherzer is pitching in these spots because the Blue Jays need him to. This rotation has been decimated by injuries, so the 6.38 ERA that Scherzer carried into Wednesday’s game didn’t matter much. The Blue Jays needed the future Hall of Famer to give them a chance, and that’s exactly what he did.
Scherzer’s velocity hovered below his 2026 norms and his control wasn’t pinpoint, but that didn’t matter much, either. The 42-year-old held the Tigers off long enough for the Blue Jays’ bats to break through in the middle innings, a rock-solid performance given the circumstances.
“We have work to do,” Scherzer said. “It takes all of us, not only the starting staff, but the bullpen, the hitters. We have to win ballgames. Our backs are against the wall. We’ve got to come out fighting and clawing, and keep finding ways to win ballgames.”
Getting through five innings of one-run ball was crucial, too, with how worn out the Blue Jays’ bullpen is. Thursday’s off-day comes at a very welcome time; then the Blue Jays will roll out Dylan Cease and José Soriano in their first two games against the Rangers on Friday and Saturday, another aggressive move as they try to max out the opportunity still in front of them.
3. The offense landed enough jabs
The Blue Jays’ best offense was the Tigers’ atrocious defense at times, but before that mess of errors in the sixth inning, Toronto also came up with some timely hitting.
No. 9 hitter Myles Straw had the biggest swing of the game, a go-ahead RBI single in the fourth, and Straw is proving that he belongs in the lineup as often as the matchups allow down the stretch.
“Today was huge,” Straw said. “That was like a must-win, but obviously, we’ve got nine more. Anything can happen. That’s plenty of baseball.”
To go on a true run, though -- which is what Toronto needs at this point -- there needs to be some power. This team can win the 2-1 and 4-2 games, but if this pitching staff falters again, the Blue Jays need to be able to win a slugfest, which hasn’t come naturally to them in 2026.