AL playoffs

Is there any hope left for the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox in the American League wild-card race? The two AL East teams were on the fringes of contention when the week began, hanging 5 and 4.5 games out respectively. But each has missed significant opportunities to capitalize. The Jays were swept by Tampa Bay when the last three games gave Toronto a chance to gain ground on one of the five teams that are packed within a game or so of the two wild-card spots in the American League playoffs. Boston wrapped up a 10-game homestand by losing two of three to Texas and finishing 4-6 for the sequence of games that was supposed to kickstart an August push. Both teams began 2012 with October expectations. TheSportsNotebook examines what went wrong and whether we should indeed stick a fork in both teams…