AL Playoff Roundup (Aug. 29): Aaron Judge Hits 50th Homer, But Yankees Lose Again

“It’s 50, and it’s August," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Judge's historic shot. He's on pace to hit 63 homers, which would be an American League record. “It’s hard to wrap your mind around just how incredible of a season he’s had to this point. The one time they pitch to him he hits it off a rock. It’s really special what he’s doing."

The Yankees, who lost Saturday and Sunday to the lowly A's in Oakland, are now just 9-17 in the month of August. They'll play two more games against the Angels before flying across the country for a huge weekend series with the Tampa Bay Rays.

With the Yankees loss, the Rays, who were enjoying a much-needed day off in Miami, moved to within seven games of the Yankees in the American League East. That's the closest they've been to the division lead since June 9. Meanwhile, while the Rays were relaxing, the Marlins played 10 innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers — they lost 3-2 — and used five pitchers.

Here are Monday's results from teams currently in the AL playoff picture:

• ANGELS 4, YANKEES 3: Shohei Ohtani broke a 2-2 tie with a two-run homer off of Frankie Montas in the fifth inning of the Los Angeles Angel's 4-3 win over the New York Yankees. In five starts with the Yankees since being acquired from Oakland at the trade deadline, Montas is 0-2 with a 7.01 ERA. He is now 4-11 overall. 
• BLUE JAYS 5, CUBS 4 (11 inn.): Toronto erased a four-run deficit and won in the 11th inning on catcher Danny Jansen's single, knocking off the Chicago Cubs 5-4. Five Blue Jays relievers covered 5 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and a walk.
• TWINS 4, RED SOX 2: Minnesota's Gio Urshela had a three-run double in the fifth inning to help give the Twins a 4-2 victory over the reeling Boston Red Sox. Boston rookie Brayan Bello took the loss, and he is now 0-4 on the season.

Tuesday's schedule for playoff teams

• Baltimore Orioles (Spenser Watkins 4-4, 3.96 ERA)  at Cleveland Guardians (Cal Quantrill 10-5, 3.51 ERA), 6:10 p.m. ET
• Tampa Bay Rays (Shane McClanahan 11-5, 2.20 ERA) at Miami Marlins (Jesus Luzardo 3-5, 3.34 ERA), 6:40 p.m. ET 
• Chicago Cubs (Marcus Stroman 3-6, 4.10 ERA) at Toronto Blue Jays (Kevin Gausman 9-9, 3.15 ERA), 7:07 p.m. ET
• Seattle Mariners (George Kirby 5-3, 3.32 ERA) at Detroit Tigers (Matt Manning 1-1 2.37 ERA), 7:10 p.m. ET
• Boston Red Sox (Kutter Crawford 3-5, 5.30 ERA) at Minnesota Twins (Chris Archer 2-7, 4.34 ERA), 7:40 p.m. ET
• Houston Astros (Framber Valdez 13-4, 2.65) at Texas Rangers (Dane Dunning 3-6, 4.19 ERA), 8:10 p.m. ET
• Kansas City Royals (Brady Singer 7-4, 3.14 ERA) at Chicago White Sox (Lucas Giolito 10-7, 5.14 ERA), 8:10 p.m. ET
• New York Yankees (Jonathan Taillon 12-4, 3.89 ERA) at Los Angeles Angels (Matt Mayers 1-0, 4.42 ERA), 9:40 p.m. ET

If the playoffs started today ...

• No. 1 seed — The Houston Astros (82-47, AL West leader, would get first-round bye) are the top seed, and are 4.5 games ahead of the New York Yankees for the top seed. They are 11.5 games ahead of the Seattle Mariners in the AL West.
• No. 2 seed — The New York Yankees (78-51, AL East leader, would get first-round bye) but their lead in the division is now down to seven games ahead of Tampa Bay.
• No. 3 seed — The Cleveland Guardians (67-59, the AL Central leader would host No. 6 seed in best-of-three first-round series) have a 1 1/2-game lead over Minnesota in the division race.
• No. 4 seed — The Tampa Bay Rays (70-57, the top wild-card team, would host the No. 5 seed Seattle in a best-of-three first-round series). The Rays just played 17 games in a row, and went 12-5. They are a half-game ahead of Seattle
• No. 5 seed — The Seattle Mariners (70-58, tied with the wild-card leader, but loses a tie-breaker). Seattle is a half-game behind the Rays and a half-game ahead of Toronto. They are 2 1/5 games clear or the Baltimore Orioles
• No. 6 seed — The Toronto Blue Jays (69-58, third wild-card team, would play at No. 3 seed Cleveland in a best-of-three first-round series). They are two games ahead Baltimore.

Outside looking in

• Baltimore Orioles: The Orioles are 67-60, and are two games behind Toronto for final wild-card spot. 
• Minnesota Twins: The Twins are 66-61, and are three games behind Seattle for final wild-card spot.

Are they done now, too?

• Chicago White Sox: The White Sox are 63-65, and are 6.5 games behind Seattle for the final wild-card spot. They were swept at home by Arizona over the weekend, which might have been the nail in the coffin.
• Boston Red Sox: The Red Sox are 62-67, and are eight games behind Toronto for the final wild-card spot. They are 2-8 in their last 10 games.

Too far back

• Texas Rangers (58-69)
• Los Angeles Angels (56-73)
• Kansas City Royals (52-77)
• Detroit Tigers (50-78)
• Oakland Athletics (48-81)