The Boston Red Sox lose and clinch the AL East. The Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers win, but lose when the Baltimore Orioles win. The New York Mets win ... and then win again when the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants lose. If you've been paying attention, that will make sense.
It was a night of dramatic moments, with a lot happening in a span of 1 hour, 12 minutes. Here's a timeline (all times ET) courtesy of Sarah Langs of ESPN Stats & Info:
9:51 (TOR): Top of 9th begins: Toronto Blue Jays lead O's 2-1
9:51 (DET): Miguel Cabrera go-ahead home run against the Cleveland Indians
9:57 (DET): Tigers/Indians game goes into a delay
10:00 (TOR): Hyun Soo Kim go-ahead two-run home run off Roberto Osuna
10:11 (TOR): Orioles win; Red Sox's magic number reaches 0
10:12 (NYY): Bottom of 9th begins: Red Sox lead the New York Yankees 3-0
10:29 (NYY): Craig Kimbrel walks Brian McCann, Brett Gardner scores; Red Sox lead 3-1
10:30 (NYY): Kimbrel removed, Joe Kelly enters game
10:37 (NYY): Mark Teixeira hits a walk-off grand slam, Yankees win, Red Sox lose
10:56 (STL): Bottom of 9th begins: Cincinnati Reds lead Cardinals 2-1
10:58 (STL): Kolten Wong hits triple to lead off bottom of 9th
11:03 (STL): Jedd Gyorko grounds out to third base, Cardinals lose
1. Orioles can breathe again. The Mariners had already won and the Tigers were going to win, so the Orioles would have fallen into a tie with the Tigers and would be just a game ahead of the Mariners. Instead:
#Birdland ❤️ Hyun Soo Kim. #Clutch pic.twitter.com/8yB39NlCKR
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) September 29, 2016
It was a terrific at-bat by Kim, as he fouled off three pitches with two strikes, worked the count to 3-2, and then turned on a 96-mph heater. Besides the importance for the Orioles, the game signifies a growing concern about the Toronto bullpen that is now without Joaquin Benoit. Jason Grilli served up a home run to Mark Trumbo in the eighth to make it 2-1, and then Osuna gave up two runs for the third time in six outings. The Blue Jays will hold on for a wild card, but if they escape that game you have to wonder if the bullpen has the depth and reliability to bring this team to the World Series.
2. The Yankees are still alive! Teixeira is retiring at season's end, so pretty cool that he hit the first walk-off home run of his career -- he'd had the most regular-season home runs without ever hitting a walk-off.
Down to the final out, @teixeiramark25 came through in a grand way against our biggest rival. https://t.co/LmRPog1TgO pic.twitter.com/wmhSTnN5ir
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 29, 2016
Oh, and the Yankees are still barely alive. They just need to go 4-0, the Orioles need to go 0-4, the Tigers 1-3, the Mariners 2-2 and the Astros 3-0 and we get a five-way tie for the second wild card. Our friend Rany Jazayerli tells us, "Using the binomial theorem and assuming every game is a coin flip, I get the odds of this happening as 3 in 8,192, or about 0.04%."
We can dream!
3. Did Gary Sanchez just win the Rookie of the Year? In that rainy game in Detroit that was eventually called after five innings, Michael Fulmer lasted just 3 1/3 innings, giving up three runs, which means: 1. His 3.06 ERA now matches Aaron Sanchez of the Blue Jays for the AL lead (Fulmer leads on the fourth decimal, however). 2. He didn't get to 162 to qualify for the ERA title anyway. Winning the ERA crown would have been a boost to Fulmer's résumé, although you would hope three innings wouldn't change a voter's ballot.
4. Mets can clinch Friday. Jay Bruce homered for the second game in a row, Curtis Granderson rapped out four hits, Seth Lugo won again and Jeurys Familia notched his 50th save as the Mets beat the Marlins 5-2. Then the Cardinals lost and then the Giants did too. FiveThirtyEight.com gives the Mets' playoff odds of 99 percent. They're off Thursday, but if the Cardinals and Giants both lose again, they can clinch on Friday with a win and a Giants loss.
Oh, and in instructional league, you might have that Tim Tebow homered on the first he saw in game action.
5. Texas Rangers inch closer to home-field advantage. Down 5-4 to the Milwaukee Brewers, they scored four runs in the eighth, with Carlos Gomez belting a three-run homer.
3-run home runs are becoming routine for @RealCarlosGomez! #LetsGoRangers pic.twitter.com/R8qUwyXuqd
— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) September 29, 2016
Carlos Gomez this season
— Ryan M. Spaeder (@theaceofspaeder) September 29, 2016
85 games with #Astros - .210/.272/.322 with 5 HR
31 games with #Rangers - .291/.371/.564 with 8 HR
And get this, also from Ryan Spaeder: With this win going to reliever Jeremy Jeffress, the Rangers tied the 1953 Dodgers with 41 relief wins. The Rangers are 25th in relief. Is this 2016's team of destiny?
