Things are officially hairy for the Red Sox . After losing at home to a middling Athletics team on Thursday afternoon, Boston is just 1½ games ahead of Cleveland for the last playoff spot.

The Guardians are rolling and beat the Detroit bullpen after Tarik Skubal left. Cleveland has the game in hand with 10 games to go to Boston’s nine.

The Guardians play four at Minnesota, then host Detroit and Texas for three each to close out the season.

If Boston holds off Cleveland, they’ll likely be the No. 6 seed and would play the AL West winner. The Mariners and Astros are currently tied for first with three games left against each other.

The wild-card-leading Yankees beat Baltimore to move three games ahead of the Red Sox as home-field in the best-of-three wild-card series now seems nearl

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