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<\/p>\nIf New York loses, then a Toronto win over the Rays \u2013 a game that\u2019s scheduled to begin about two hours later \u2013 would give the Blue Jays (92-68) the East crown and a bye to the American League Division Series.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pressures, the anxiety, whatever you want to call it, it\u2019s a privilege,\u201d said Blue Jays starter Shane Bieber, who went five innings for the win. \u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic spot to be in. I think we all recognize that. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re embracing it and enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n
George Springer scored twice and Nathan Lukes hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the fifth inning. The blast came on a hit-and-run play with Springer aboard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t really intending on putting the ball where it went, but it all worked out,\u201d Lukes said with a smile.<\/p>\n
It was his 12th homer of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe caught all barrel there and it was a huge hit,\u201d Bieber said. \u201cA huge momentum swing and it got us to the finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n
After three frames of shutout relief, the Blue Jays survived a nervous ninth inning. The Rays put runners in scoring position against closer Jeff Hoffman before he got Yandy Diaz on a groundout to earn his 33rd save in 40 chances.<\/p>\n
Junior Caminero and Jonathan Aranda hit back-to-back solo shots off Bieber in the second inning. He allowed five hits, two walks and had three strikeouts.<\/p>\n
The Rays (77-83) have dropped 14 of their last 20 games.<\/p>\n
The second-place finisher in the East will play in the wild-card series. Toronto has been swept in the wild-card round in its last three post-season appearances.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jays are looking to win the East title for the first time since 2015.<\/p>\n
Toronto rookie right-hander Trey Yesavage (0-0, 5.00 earned-run average) was scheduled to make his third big-league start on Saturday. Joe Boyle (1-3, 4.40) was tabbed to start for the Rays.<\/p>\n
The regular season concludes on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the energy has been really good the last two days and I expect it to continue to be that way,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cAnd man, you\u2019ve got to just keep winning.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2025. <\/p>\n
Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If New York loses, then a Toronto win over the Rays \u2013 a game that\u2019s scheduled to begin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-172156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}