wild card standings
Cleveland will start 23-year-old rookie Danny Salazar in Wednesday night's winner-takes-all American League Wild Card game against the Tampa Bay Rays; Salazar will duel with Rays' pitcher Alex Cobb, who is 3-0 with a 2.57 ERA for the month of September
The Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Texas Rangers 5-2 in the American League tiebreaker game; pitcher David Price pitched his fourth complete game of the season and Evan Longoria going 3-for-4 to advance the Rays into the American League Wild-card game against the Cleveland Indians
Also, the Cleveland Indians clinch the top wild-card berth and will host the winner of Monday night's Texas Rangers-Tampa Bay Rays one-game tiebreaker game, after both teams ended the season tied for the last playoff spot.
The Detroit Tigers won their third consecutive American League Central division title after defeating the Minnesota Twins 1-0 Wednesday night, on the strength of Cy Young candidate Max Scherzer's commanding eight-inning performance, striking out ten batters.
The New York Yankees were officially eliminated from the American League (AL) Wild-card chase, marking the first time since since 2008 and the the second time in 19 years the Yankees miss the postseason. The Kansas City Royal were also eliminated Wednesday night, losing 6-0 to the Seattle Mariners.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have punched their ticket into the playoffs, along with the Cincinnati Reds, after the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Washington Nationals; Cardinal rookie pitcher Michael Wacha holds Nationals to one hit in nine innings Tuesday night as St. Louis tries to stay ahead of Cincinnati and Pittsburgh in the NL Central race
The Tampa Bay Rays take the top spot in the AL Wild Card standings after beating the Texas Rangers Monday night while the Kansas City Royals continue gaining ground beating Cleveland 7-1.
Also, the Texas Rangers and the Tampa Bay Rays continue to struggle as the American League wild-card race heats up.
The Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays are the current leaders in the wild card race, but the New York Yankees, Oakland A's, Cleveland Indians, Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals are nipping at their heels with less than a month left in the season.
