Red Sox's Magic Number Drops After Walk-Off; Guardians Become No. 1 Threat

It was by no means pretty, but the Boston Red Sox found a way to get back in the win column with a 5-4 extra-inning thriller over the Athletics on Wednesday night.

Zack Kelly and Chris Murphy teamed up for a scoreless 10th inning, Carlos Narvaez laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt, and pinch-hitter Nick Sogard hit a grounder to second base just soft enough to allow the speedy Nate Eaton to score the winning run with a headfirst dive.

And thank goodness the Red Sox won, because the Cleveland Guardians aren't losing.

Here's a look at the full playoff picture as Boston enters its final 10 games of the season: Red Sox's magic number down to eight The Red Sox (83-69) shrank their magic number to clinch a playoff berth to eight, as the Guardians (80-71) blanked the Detroit Tigers 4-0.

Cleveland, which has one more game remaining on its schedule than Boston does, is slated to face Cy Young front-runner Tarik Skubal on Thursday.

Elsewhere, the Houston Astros finished off a three-game sweep of the Texas Rangers.

Texas has lost four in a row is now 4 1/2 games back of Boston entering Thursday, so the Red Sox's magic number to finish ahead of the Rangers is down to six.

Houston (84-69) is a half-game ahead of the Seattle Mariners (83-69) for the American League West crown.

The Mariners lost to the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night, dropping them into a share of the second wild card spot with the Red Sox.

Seattle is the one team in the playoff picture with whom the Red Sox tied the season series, and the tiebreaker is not yet determined.

Finally, the New York Yankees (85-67) beat the Minnesota Twins, keeping a two-game lead over the Red Sox for the first wild card spot.

It looks as though the Red Sox will be rooting for the Rangers to beat the Guardians in the final weekend of the regular season if they haven't sealed up a playoff spot by then.

According to Fangraphs, the Red Sox's odds to make their first playoff appearance since 2021 are 90.8% entering Thursday.

More MLB: Red Sox Making Garrett Crochet Change As Innings Pile Up: Report.

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