MLB Playoff Picture: 3 things to know from Thursday

Every night we look around the league and identify three things you need to know about the playoff races. Here's what happened Thursday:

Rangers clinch playoff berth

The Texas Rangers are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2012 after clinching a postseason berth with a 5-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels. The Rangers also lowered their magic number in the division to one over the idle Houston Astros. After winning seven straight to temporarily crawl into the second wild-card spot, the Angels have dropped their last two games and trail the Astros for the lone remaining wild-card spot by one game. The Minnesota Twins are also lurking one game behind Houston.

Yankees punch ticket to postseason

Joe Girardi's squad is back in the postseason for the first time in two years after dispatching the Boston Red Sox 4-1 to earn a wild-card berth. The New York Yankees, however, still have a magic number of one to clinch home-field advantage in the sudden death contest with a three-game set looming in Baltimore. New York will either play the Astros, Angels, or Twins next Tuesday for a chance to advance to the divisional round.

Home sweet home

The battle for home advantage now becomes the focus this weekend with the playoff picture beginning to take shape. The Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals have identical 92-67 records in the race to capture the top seed in the AL, and Toronto holds the season-series tiebreaker. The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets are in a similar predicament with their matching 89-70 records. In this case, New York owns the tiebreaker edge for home-field advantage in the NLDS.

If the playoffs started today:

w: clinched wild card
x: clinched playoff berth
y: clinched division

The race to clinch the division: