Blue Jays' aim at division title and what else to watch in final week of MLB regular season

Right around Labour Day, it looked like Major League Baseball's playoff race would be a big snooze fest.

September had other ideas.

The standings in both the American League and National League have tightened in a hurry, and a lot of the action over the final week of the season will take place in Ohio.

The Toronto Blue Jays were the first AL team to secure a spot in the playoffs with Sunday's 8-5 victory over the Royals in Kansas City.

They return to the post-season for the first time since 2023, having improved their AL-best and AL East-leading record to 90-66.

In 2023, they were topped by the Minnesota Twins in the wild-card round.

This week, the Blue Jays are aiming for a division crown, their first since 2015. Should they succeed and clinch the first or second seed in the AL, Toronto would receive a bye through the wild-card round and home-field advantage in the AL Division Series. The last time the Jays made it that far was nine years ago.

Here's a look at some things to watch as MLB's regular season comes to an end and October baseball arrives:

• The National League wild-card race was a dead heat as of Tuesday morning with the New York Mets and Cincinnati Reds tied for the final playoff spot at 80-76. The Reds own the tiebreaker if the two teams end the 162-game season with the same record. The Arizona Diamondbacks are also in the mix, one game behind both teams. The Mets looked well-positioned for a playoff spot on Sept. 1 but have a 7-12 record this month, which allowed the Reds and D-backs to climb into the race.
• The American League also has plenty of drama, with four teams — including the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Guardians and Houston Astros — fighting for the final three playoff spots. The Guardians have a stunning 15-2 record since Sept. 5, climbing to one game behind the struggling Tigers in the AL Central.
• Seattle's Cal Raleigh hit his 58th homer of the season on Sunday, extending his record for homers in a season by a player who plays primarily catcher. He has six games remaining to try and get to 60. Philadelphia's Kyle Schwarber and LA's Shohei Ohtani both have 53 homers, while Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has 49.

• There are 12 teams that qualify for MLB's post-season, including six teams from both the AL and NL. The three division winners in each league get seeds No. 1 through No. 3, ranked by win-loss record. Then the three wild-card teams get seeds No. 4 through No. 6, also ranked by win-loss record.

• The top two teams with the best record in both the AL and NL automatically advance to the Division Series. The other eight teams play in the Wild Card Series, which is a best-of-three format beginning on Tuesday, Sept. 30. In both the AL and NL, the No. 6 seed will travel to face the No. 3 seed while the No. 5 seed goes to No. 4. The higher seed hosts all three games.
• The winners then advance to the best-of-five Division Series, followed by the best-of-seven League Championship Series and a best-of-seven World Series between the winners of the AL and NL.

• Wild card round: Sept. 30-Oct. 2 (ESPN)
• Division Series: Oct. 4-11 (NL on TBS, AL on FOX/FS1)
• Championship Series: Oct. 12-21 (NL on TBS, AL on FOX/FS1)
• World Series: Oct. 24-Nov. 1 (FOX)

In the American League, only the Toronto Blue Jays know they will play October baseball. The New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners are in excellent position to clinch a spot in the next few days.

Favourites to win World Series

The Phillies (+425) are the favorite to win the World Series, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. After that, it's the Dodgers (+500), Mariners (+600), Brewers (+725), Blue Jays (+800) and Yankees (+800).

The Blue Jays opened the season at +6000 odds.