American League wild-card roundup: Blue Jays gain ground with Twins idle

By picking up a rare series win at Tropicana Field, the Toronto Blue Jays moved a little closer to a playoff spot.

With the Twins idle, the Blue Jays' 5-1 win over the Rays on Thursday moved them just a half game back of Minnesota and Texas for the final wild-card spot in the American League.

The Rangers pulled level with the Twins thanks to a 2-0 win in Washington on Thursday night. Cleveland also picked up a win Thursday and sits just behind the Blue Jays in the standings.

On the flip side, both the Orioles and Mariners lost Thursday to fall further back in the wild-card race.

New York Yankees: vs. Toronto Boston: vs. San Francisco Minnesota: at San Diego Texas: vs. L.A. Angels Toronto: at New York Yankees Cleveland: at Colorado Detroit: at Kansas City Baltimore: vs. Tampa Bay Seattle: vs. Chicago Cubs

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Kazuma Okamoto, Nathan Lukes and Daz Cameron homered, George Springer drove in two runs, and Shane Bieber pitched seven strong innings as Toronto beat Tampa.

Lukes snapped a 1-1 tie with a homer to lead off the fifth. Cameron followed with a solo shot two batters later. Lukes also made a leaping catch in right field in the seventh inning.

Bieber (5-2) retired the first nine Rays batters before Chandler Simpson beat out an infield chopper and scored the Rays’ only run on Junior Caminero’s single. Bieber allowed four hits, walked none and struck out seven.

Okamoto, who also doubled, opened the scoring by leading off the second inning with his 26th home run of the season. He leads AL rookies in RBIs (74) and extra-base hits (44), and ranks second in homers.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Jacob deGrom reached 2,000 career strikeouts in the second-fewest games and innings pitched in major league history when the Texas Rangers right-hander fanned the first two batters among his 10 K's against the Washington Nationals on Thursday night.

DeGrom struck out Daylen Lile and Abimelec Ortiz, both of whom chased sliders below the zone. He received a standing ovation and acknowledged the applause by tapping his cap over his heart.

DeGrom allowed a second-inning single and a fifth-inning walk, both to Brady House, in six shutout innings while throwing 94 pitches. He struck out the side in the fourth, and his 10 strikeouts matched a season best.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner has 2,008 strikeouts in 1,666 1/3 innings over 272 starts since his big league debut in 2014 with the New York Mets. DeGrom has 157 strikeouts in 126 2/3 innings this season.

BALTIMORE — Gerrit Cole pitched six sharp innings, Luis García Jr. and Spencer Jones homered and the New York Yankees completed a three-game sweep in Baltimore with a 6-1 victory over the Orioles on Thursday night.