Five Relievers, Three Days: Toronto's Bullpen Is Out of Answers With the Wild Card on the Line.

Toronto's wild card elimination number ticked from 3 to 2 overnight — the cost of a 4-3 loss to Baltimore that also cost the Blue Jays' bullpen almost everyone in it. Tyler Rogers pitched for the third time in three days and took the loss. Chad Dallas threw 34 pitches in relief. Brendan Cellucci, Mason Fluharty and José Rodríguez have each pitched twice since Saturday. All five are flagged likely unavailable tonight, leaving Spencer Arrighetti and Paul Sewald — both already tagged risky off their own recent workloads — as the safest outs left in the pen.

Toronto is 77-80, a team with a losing record still mathematically alive with five games left, chasing a wild card cushion Boston is guarding at four games clear. Baltimore, one game back of Toronto in the loss column, needs the exact same math to break its way — and carries the same elimination number, 2, into the same building tonight.

Max Scherzer takes the ball for Toronto against Baltimore's Chris Bassitt — a future Hall of Famer working through a 6.07 ERA season opposite a righty who has given the Orioles innings more than results, at 4.64. Whichever start goes deeper probably decides whether tonight turns into the bullpen game neither pen wants it to be.

Will Smith is hitting .248 with 9 home runs across 69 games — modest numbers for a catcher who has anchored two straight Dodgers pennant chases. His underlying numbers disagree with the batting line: a .333 wOBA against a .385 expected wOBA, a 52-point gap that ranks among the widest in the sport, the kind of number that says the results haven't caught up to the contact yet.

He gets his shot to close it against a San Diego team riding a 5-game winning streak into Dodger Stadium, one that shares a wild card spot with the Cubs at +1.0 games. Los Angeles got healthier on the mound to meet it — Roki Sasaki was activated off the 15-day injured list Monday alongside center fielder Andy Pages, adding a fresh arm to a staff that will need the depth if this series turns into the fight the standings suggest it should.

San Diego sends Michael King; Los Angeles' own starter was unannounced as of this morning. Either way, Smith's bat is the variable the market hasn't fully priced — the Dodgers close as a modest home favorite, not the number reserved for a lineup getting the version of its catcher the contact quality says is coming.

Tampa Bay and New York play twice today at Yankee Stadium — a true day-night doubleheader, separate admission, first pitch at 1:05 PM ET and again at 7:05 PM ET, the makeup of a game rained out back on May 23. It's a scheduling relic that's gotten genuinely rare: most doubleheaders since 2020 are seven-inning single-admission twin bills. This one is nine innings, twice, in the same building, on the same day.

The stakes sit mostly with Tampa Bay, which has all but locked up the AL East at 95-60 and brings a bullpen that will feel today more than most — Cole Sulser and Kevin Kelly have each pitched in back-to-back games and carry the "risky" workload flag into game two. New York, six games back and safely positioned for October, is largely playing out the string, but Carlos Rodón and Max Fried both start real games rather than a bullpen-day placeholder.

Nick Martinez opens for Tampa Bay against Rodón; Drew Rasmussen follows against Fried — four legitimate starters across two games, pitching depth that makes a getaway doubleheader look almost routine, even when the scheduling quirk behind it is anything but.