MLB American League 2013 Wild Card Standings & Race: New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, and Kansas City Royals Eliminated From Wild-Card

The New York Yankees were officially eliminated from the American League (AL) Wild Card chase, marking the first time since since 2008 and the second time in 19 years the Yankees miss the postseason. The Kansas City Royal were also eliminated Wednesday night, losing 6-0 to the Seattle Mariners. 

Tampa Bay Rays / New York Yankees
The Rays have eliminated any possibility of a Mariano Rivera appearance in the postseason after defeating the New York Yankees 8-3 Wednesday night - marking the first time New York has failed to make the playoffs since 2008 and the second time in 19 years they miss the postseason.

"It's never easy," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi. "We worked really hard to get into the postseason and have a chance to win the World Series, and when you're out before the postseason even starts, it's extremely disappointing."

The Rays, who hold the top wild card spot in the American League, have reduced their magic number to three games over the Texas Rangers and a one game lead over Cleveland - holding the second AL wild card spot.

"I feel like we feel pretty confident as a group," said Rays third baseman Evan Longoria. "But at the same time, we can't let that kind of skew our view of how we need to play these four games. Every one of them is going to be just as important as the next."

Cleveland Indians
Nick Swisher hit a two-run home run to help Cleveland defeat the Chicago White Sox, putting them one game ahead of the Texas Rangers in the AL Wild Card standings with four games left, against the Minnesota Twins, on their schedule.

"We've just got to play baseball, that's all we gotta do," said Jason Giambi, who came off the bench Tuesday night to blast a pinch-hit two-run home run to keep Cleveland's playoff chances alive. "We don't have to worry about anybody else beating anybody else. We've just get to go out and play baseball, which is the fun part of the game."

Texas Rangers
The Houston Astros was just what the doctor ordered for the slumping Rangers, who beat Houston to complete a three-game sweep of their in-state rival - losers of 12 straight games. The Rangers were 20-7 in August, with a two game lead over the Oakland A's before going on 8-15 in the month of September, allowing Oakland to clinch the AL West division title.

"We put ourselves in this position. We have to win the games, we've got to get help from someone else," said second baseman Ian Kinsler. "The best we can do is win four more games."

Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals were eliminated from playoff contention after losing 6-0 to the Seattle Mariners Wednesday night. Mariner pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma (14-6) three eight scoreless innings - allowing four hits and striking out nine - to neutralize the Royals' bats. Kansas City will miss the postseason for the 28th year in a row.

"Back-to-back shutouts, you're not going to win any games scoring zero runs," said Royals left fielder Alex Gordon, referring to Kansas City's 4-0 loss to the Mariners Tuesday night. "It's kind of a tough way to go out."

Baltimore Orioles
The Orioles were eliminated Tuesday night after losing 3-2 to the Toronto Blue Jays in ten innings. Second baseman Mark DeRosa entered Tuesday's game as an eighth inning pinch hitter, tying the game with a single and smacking a two-out RBI single in the 10th inning to end the Orioles playoff hopes.

"Being eliminated from the playoffs is a huge disappointment because that was what we had our minds set on and that was our goal this season," said Orioles left fielder Nate McLouth to the Baltimore Sun. "To realize that's not going to happen is really disappointing, especially the way the last two games have gone. We feel like we could have or maybe should have won. Kind of strange things happened that didn't allow that to happen, but to be officially eliminated is disappointing."

* Eliminated from the AL Wild-card race