Update: The Rays Completed the Sweep and the AL East Lead Is 5.5
Tampa Bay beat Seattle 4-1 to complete a three-game sweep, improving to 70-46 and stretching its AL East lead to 5.5 games.
This is the day's movement on top of our full AL East and wild-card breakdown, which has the standings math in detail. Only the change is below.
The change
Tampa Bay beat Seattle 4-1 to complete a three-game sweep, moving to 70-46 and stretching the AL East lead to 5.5 games. The Yankees lost 2-1 in 10 innings in Atlanta on a Michael Harris II walk-off single, falling to 66-52 and missing the chance to close the gap.
A sweep and a one-run extra-innings loss on the same night is a two-game swing in a race that had been holding at 4.5. With roughly seven weeks left, that is meaningful without being decisive, and the wild-card picture underneath it is still fluid.