Angels lose a game and some ground in Toronto

The Angels, chasing teams in two separate playoffs races, had a chance to pick up ground in each Thursday in Toronto.

The Boston Red Sox, who lead the wild-card race, were idle Thursday. And the Texas Rangers, who lead the American League West, had already lost in Oakland by the time the Angels took the field.

But instead of gaining, the Angels lost twice -- dropping a game to Toronto Blue Jays, 4-3, in 12 innings and a losing half a game in the standings to the Red Sox. As a result they'll begin their final homestand of the season Friday trailing the Red Sox by three games and the Rangers by five with six to play.

That leaves little room for error for a team that looked anything but sharp in a game they had to win Thursday, giving up the tying run on a wild pitch and losing on Edwin Encarnacion's walk-off homer to start the 12th inning.

The homer, Encarnacion's 17th, came off rookie Garrett Richards, who came on to face big league home run leader Jose Bautista with one out in the 11th inning and got him. But he couldn't get Encarnacion an inning later.