Giants, Blue Jays, Orioles into playoffs

Baltimore, San Francisco and Toronto have secured the final three Major League Baseball playoff berths.

Baltimore's Zach Britton (53) and Matt Wieters

Baltimore, San Francisco and Toronto have secured the final three MLB playoff berths. (AAP)

The San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles have grabbed the last three Major League Baseball playoff spots, and the October match-ups are set.

Neat and clean, no need for all sorts of tiebreakers. Too bad that kind of final-day scramble might've been fun for fans.

Instead, they could sit back, savour broadcaster Vin Scully's farewell call and prepare for the post-season. It opens Tuesday night when the Orioles visit Toronto in the AL wild-card game.

``All we asked for is an opportunity, and right now, we have an opportunity,'' Baltimore centre fielder Adam Jones said after the Orioles beat the New York Yankees 5-2.

``So, let's celebrate and enjoy this and get back to work.''

No official word yet on the starting pitchers at Rogers Centre.

Figures to be Chris Tillman for the O's against Marcus Stroman.

On Wednesday night, aces duel as Madison Bumgarner starts for the Giants vs Noah Syndergaard and the New York Mets at Citi Field for the NL wild card.

On Thursday, the best-of-five AL Division Series begins: David Ortiz and Boston at Cleveland, and the wild-card winner at Texas.

On Friday night, Clayton Kershaw starts the opening game for the Los Angeles Dodgers at Washington, and the NL wildcard play the best-in-the-majors Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Going into Game 162, Detroit and St Louis also had a chance to reach the post-season.

That raised the possibility of multi-team, multi-city tiebreakers going into early next week.

The Tigers were in the middle of that mix.

They hoped to win at Atlanta and have either the Orioles or Blue Jays lose - then, they'd have needed to win a make-up game on Monday to force a tiebreaker for an AL wild-card spot.

But that kind of drama never developed as the teams holding leads took care of business.

Manager Buck Showalter and Baltimore sealed their spot, winning at Yankee Stadium.

When the Tigers later lost 1-0 at Atlanta in the last game at Turner Field, they were out and Toronto was back in for the second straight year.

Later, the Blue Jays' 2-1 victory at Fenway Park meant they would host Baltimore.

With All-Star catcher Buster Posey getting three hits and driving in three runs, San Francisco finished off the Dodgers and eliminated the Cardinals.

The Giants have enjoyed a recent run of even-year success, winning the World Series in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

The last time they reached the post-season, Bumgarner pitched a shutout at Pittsburgh in the wild-card game and went on to become the World Series MVP.

So another cross-country flight to begin the playoffs was fine by them.


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Source: AAP



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