AL Playoff Picture: Blue Jays are within striking distance thanks to manageable schedule

Hardly anyone expected the Toronto Blue Jays to be where they are today after a sluggish first half of their 2026 MLB season. Entering the last week of August, they are closer to a playoff spot than they have any right to be. They've gotten some trade deadline magic, and the ball is suddenly starting to bounce their way. They now find themselves in the thick of the American League playoff race when many had counted them out just a month ago.

With a 64-68 record (entering Tuesday, Aug. 25), Toronto currently sits two games behind the third and final wild card spot. However, they are among a group of no less than six AL teams all fighting for that prestigious postseason berth heading into the stretch run. Nevertheless, with the Blue Jays now knocking on the door for the playoffs, they may have one key thing that could put them over the top in the coming weeks. That thing just so happens to be the favourable schedule that they have to close out the season.

Blue Jays need to continue to string together more series wins in the coming weeks to maximize their postseason chances

Starting on Tuesday against the Kansas City Royals, the Blue Jays won’t be facing a single team with a current record over .500 the rest of the way (although the Cleveland Guardians and Texas Rangers are currently at .500). Of course, Toronto will need to do a lot better than the 31-26 record that they own against sub .500 clubs, but it is still better than their 33-42 record against plus .500 squads. More significantly, the Blue Jays no longer need to face the AL East juggernaut trio in the New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox to close out this year.

In terms of any home-field advantage down the stretch, the Blue Jays play exactly 15 games on the road and 15 more at the Rogers Centre. Fortunately, Toronto has played about the same at home (33-33) and on the road (31-35), so the fact that they don’t have more games in their stomping grounds shouldn’t make too much of a difference.

More importantly, the Blue Jays have been on quite a roll in recent weeks, having won seven straight series before falling to the Yankees 2-1 this past weekend. That momentum of being able to string together consecutive series victories could go a long way in determining the Blue Jays’ winning success in the final month of the season.

The key now for Toronto is to execute their game plan to capitalize on their remaining schedule. Especially with 18 games against teams currently in last place in their respective divisions in the Royals, Orioles, Reds and the Athletics, the Blue Jays really can’t mess this up.

As our very own Ben Wrixon has predicted, the Blue Jays need to play close to .600 baseball down the stretch to have a fair shot at making the playoffs. That could be easily accomplished if they continue to win more series, taking two out of every three games from their opponents.

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