Reddit post with interesting concept brings nothing but pain for Blue Jays fans

The Major League Baseball postseason is hard enough for any team to qualify for. The Blue Jays have it harder than most though, by virtue of playing in the toughest division in the entire league.

Just last season, three AL East teams qualified for the postseason. The same happened a year earlier, with the Blue Jays missing out by one game despite 91 wins.

A quarter of the way through the 2023 campaign, things look even tougher than usual in the ultra competitive AL East. Each of the five teams have a winning record as of May 17, all at least four wins above .500.

As seemingly per usual, three AL East teams would qualify for the playoffs at this stage. Fortunately for Toronto sports fans this include the Blue Jays, who sit in the second AL wild card spot entering Thursday's action.

It's undoubtedly going to be a challenge for the Blue Jays to remain in a playoff spot, no matter how talented they are. Even with less games versus each of their AL East opponents, the same applies for every team in the division.

Intriguing scenario

With this in mind, a recent Reddit post played out a scenario, where the results of every one-run game so far this season was flipped. This didn't work out too well for the Blue Jays.

At the time of the post, the Blue Jays had a 21-15 record and were sitting in a wild card spot. If you flipped their record in one-run games however, it didn't make for pretty reading.

At that point the Blue Jays were 6-3 in one-run games. Reversing this to 3-6 saw them drop to .500 and out of a playoff spot, tied for 10th in the AL with the Cleveland Guardians at 18-18.

Of course this is all just a bit of fun ... or not ... depending on if you are a tortured sports fan soul. Regardless, it highlights how important winning those tight contests are, even in a 162-game marathon.

Updated look at records if one-run game results are flipped

With this in mind, we decided to revisit the concept and update the results and divisions as of May 17. Let's start with the AL East:

As you can see, this exercise still makes for tough reading for Blue Jays fans. With another seven games played, they would still drop down from third to last in the division if the one-run game results were flipped.

The biggest movers in the AL Central are the Tigers. They have been better than expected this season so far, and it is clear their ability to win one-run games is playing a significant role.

The Mariners have a penchant for winning close games, as evidenced by leading the Majors in one-run wins in each of the past two seasons. This year however, they have not been as clutch and is clearly hurting them in the standings.

What about that playoff spot?

The Blue Jays got back into their four-game series with the Yankees on Wednesday night, courtesy of a walk-off homer. As a result, they remain in a wild card spot:

Now, let's once again flip the results of all the one-run games up to this point of the season. It once saw the Blue Jays drop out of a wild card spot:

Blue Jays are just fine

Once again, we stress that this is all just a bit of fun (theoretically). Back in the real world, the Blue Jays are one of the better clutch teams. (Plus, even in this flipped scenario they are still right in the thick of things for a playoff spot.)

In fact, the Blue Jays have the fourth-best winning percentage in the AL in one-run games. However, this leads to the question of if this is sustainable, or something which could balance out as the season progresses?

For what it's worth, the Blue Jays were 30-19 in one-run games last year, with the 30 wins tied for second-most in the Majors. With largely the same roster this season -- and if anything even better -- this bodes well for their continued ability to come out on top in tight games and indeed pressure situations in general.