American League wild-card roundup: Blue Jays fall further back

With the majority of the other American League wild-card contenders idle, the Toronto Blue Jays had a chance to gain a little ground Thursday.

Instead, the Blue Jays were walloped 13-2 by the Royals and are now 3.5 games back of the Guardians for the final AL playoff spot.

Like the Blue Jays, the Orioles also fell further back with a 7-5 loss to the Cardinals.

The Astros were the only team in the race to have a successful Thursday, as they beat the Yankees 5-1 to move one game clear of the Rangers for the AL West division lead.

Toronto: vs. Seattle, 7:15 p.m. Houston: at New York Mets, 7:10 p.m. New York Yankees: vs. Boston, 7:15 p.m. Baltimore: at Athletics, 7:40 p.m. (Sportsnet+) Boston: at New York Yankees, 7:15 p.m. Texas: at Milwaukee, 7:40 p.m. (Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet+) Cleveland: vs. Kansas City, 7:10 p.m. Minnesota: vs. Chicago White Sox, 8:10 p.m. Seattle: at Toronto, 7:15 p.m. Detroit: vs. L.A. Dodgers, 6:40 p.m. (Sportsnet, Sportsnet+)

TORONTO — Jac Caglianone had a homer among his career-best five hits and finished with a career-high six RBIs, Noah Cameron pitched six strong innings and Kansas City beat Toronto.

The Blue Jays are 3 1/2 games behind Cleveland in the race for the final American League wild-card spot.

The Royals took two of three in the series, have won 10 of their last 11 games and four consecutive series, including two straight on the road after starting the season 3-15-2 in road sets. Kansas City, which went in tied with the Giants for the worst road record in MLB, is 24-45 away from home this season.

Carter Jensen hit a 421-foot homer off Spencer Arrighetti to lead off the game, and Vinnie Pasquantino hit a two-run homer that capped Kansas City’s six-run sixth and made it 10-0.

Caglianone’s two-run shot with two out in the ninth capped the scoring.

ST. LOUIS — Blaze Jordan and Ramón Urías homered early to help St. Louis beat Baltimore, snapping a five-game losing streak.

Riley O’Brien pitched a scoreless ninth inning to earn his National League-leading 34th save after allowing a combined seven runs and taking the loss in his previous two outings.

The teams traded runs in the eighth after Coby Mayo hit a three-run homer, his 18th of the season, off Caleb Ferguson in the seventh to cut the St. Louis lead to 6-4.

Urías hit his third homer off starter Trevor Rogers (9-9) in the fourth to give the Cardinals a 5-0 cushion.