MLB Official meets with the mayor of San Jose - MLB

Three things occurred in the Bay Area yesterday:

Continued silence from Bud Selig’s little committee about what will become of the Athletics;

MLB President and Chief Operating Officer Bob DuPuy had lunch with San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed; and

The A’s drew a mere 10,000 people for their second game of the season, and it looked like a lot of those people were disguised as empty seats.

I know Selig and Lew Wolff have some incentives to drag all this out — like, trying to buy some time during which they can figure out how to buy off the Giants and sucker the people of San Jose into thinking that they’re not using public resources to benefit a rich real estate developer — but sometimes a mercy killing is the best route for the goodwill of the patient. It’s been over a year since it became clear to everyone that the A’s were going to San Jose. Maybe it would have been best to get that ball rolling a while ago.

TORONTO — The Blue Jays clinched a postseason berth Thursday without taking the field.

Toronto was assured of an AL wild card berth when the Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-3.

If Toronto holds its current position as the first of the AL’s three wild cards, the Blue Jays would open a best-of-three wild-card series at Rogers Centre next week.

“These guys are excited to be in this position,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after Wednesday’s 8-3 loss to the New York Yankees. “You’ve got three really good pitchers lined up against a good Boston team, playing at home. So I think it’s more excitement more than it’s nerves or anything. I think the guys are going to come out and be ready to roll on Friday night.”

Toronto became the fourth AL team to clinch a playoff berth, joining division champions Houston, the Yankees and Cleveland. The Astros and Yankees have first-round byes.

The Blue Jays last went to the playoffs in 2020, when they were knocked out with two straight losses to Tampa Bay.

Eight of the 12 berths in the expanded postseason have been clinched: The Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis earned division titles, and Atlanta and the New York Mets are assured no worse the wild cards while still competing to win the NL East. The Dodgers have a first-round bye.