AL wild-card roundup: Blue Jays running out of time

The path back to the playoffs for the Toronto Blue Jays is looking mighty steep.

The Blue Jays (76-78) will wake up on Saturday two games back of the third wild-card spot, which is now held by the Chicago White Sox (78-76) after Friday's results.

The White Sox hold the tiebreaker over the Blue Jays, meaning Toronto needs three more wins than Chicago over the final eight games to overtake them.

Further complicating the picture are the Texas Rangers (77-77), who beat the Blue Jays 7-1 on Friday. The Rangers are one game back of the White Sox and now tied with the Houston Astros (77-77) for the AL West lead.

While there is much to be decided, Toronto risks falling out of the race for good if it can't pick up two wins over the Rangers this weekend.

Chicago White Sox: vs. Detroit, 2:10 p.m. Baltimore: vs. Brewers, 4:05 p.m., Sportsnet+ Cleveland : vs. Athletics, 6:10 p.m. Toronto : at Texas, 7:05 p.m., Sportsnet, Sportsnet+ Houston: vs. Atlanta, 7:10 p.m.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Corey Seager had an RBI double in a four-run second inning fueled by a throwing error, and the Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-1 on Friday night in the opener of a series matching AL playoff chasers.

The Rangers (77-77) reached .500 for a majors-leading 23rd time and pulled within one game of the White Sox for the third and final AL wild-card spot, although Chicago has the tiebreaker. The defending AL champion Blue Jays (76-78) are two games back in the wild-card race.

Texas also closed the gap on Houston by pulling even with the Astros atop the AL West, but the Rangers would have to win the division outright to finish ahead of their in-state rival. Houston lost to Atlanta 6-2.

The Rangers took the lead in the second on Evan Carter's bases-loaded grounder that scored Wyatt Langford, and Jake Burger also came home when shortstop Ernie Clement's throw trying to force him out at third bounced wide of the bag into foul territory. Seager made it 4-0 with his double.

Dylan Cease (11-6) walked a season-high six among his first 15 batters and was replaced with two outs in the third after throwing 38 balls and 36 strikes.

Five of the Texas runs were unearned as the Blue Jays walked 10 and had three throwing errors, two by third baseman Kazuma Okamoto.

Trevor Williams (2-0) finished with four scoreless innings after starter Kumar Rocker took a 4-0 lead into the fifth but couldn't finish and was replaced by Tyler Alexander.

Toronto's Nathan Lukes had the longest active hitting streak in the majors stopped at 13 games when he was replaced by pinch-hitter Davis Schneider in the fifth. Lukes was 0 for 2 with a deep liner that Carter, the center fielder, ran down at the wall in right center.