ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Several Toronto Blue Jays players sat in the visiting clubhouse on Saturday afternoon and kept an eye on the Kansas City Royals' game. A Royals loss could've allowed them to clinch the top spot in the American League several hours later.

Instead, the Royals won and the Blue Jays lost 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Rays as Roberto Osuna blew a save. Those results take the race for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs out of Toronto's control and down to the final day of the regular season.

The Blue Jays need a victory and a Royals loss on Sunday afternoon to face the AL wild-card-game winner in the division series and get home field in a potential AL championship series against Kansas City.

"I haven't even given any of that thought," manager John Gibbons said. "I don't get caught up in that right now. We go out and try to win our games and then let everything fall in place."

It doesn't help the Blue Jays that they don't have a starter on regular rest for Game 162. They're already keeping David Price out until Game 1 of the AL Division Series, so it'll either be Mark Buehrle for two innings and then a combination of players or Drew Hutchison.

The Blue Jays would like to get Buehrle two innings so he can reach 200 for the 15th consecutive season, an accomplishment done only four times before in major-league history. Gibbons said Buehrle will start as long as he's feeling good.

Teammates who seem to adore Buehrle want him to hit the 200-inning milestone.

"I hope he does," pitcher Marco Estrada said. "For someone to throw 200 innings every single year you've played in? It's unreal. ... It'd be nice to see, for sure."

No matter what happens Sunday, the Blue Jays have home field in the ALDS. But who they face is up in the air.

If they win and the Royals lose and Toronto becomes the top seed in the AL, the Blue Jays will face the winner of Tuesday's wild-card game between the New York Yankees and either the Houston Astros, Texas Rangers or Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The possibility still exists of a one-game playoff between two of those teams to earn the right to face the Yankees.

Otherwise, Toronto will face the AL West winner, either the Astros or Rangers, beginning Thursday at Rogers Centre. Home-field advantage throughout is something the Blue Jays would like.

"We're been so good at home," Gibbons said. "We're a home-run hitting team and it's a great place to hit, it's a great home-run-hitting park. Look at what our crowd's turned into, not just big crowds but crazy crowds."

Troy Tulowitzki should be back on the lineup Sunday. The shortstop made his return from a three-week absence with a shoulder injury on Friday night and got Saturday off to rest.

"His body, pretty much, is overall a little bit sore, but he felt the injury area came through pretty good," Gibbons said. "I thought his timing was pretty good for being out so long. He showed no ill effects of that."

Of course the Blue Jays' lineup is at its most formidable when Tulowitzki is a part of it, but the pitching in the regular-season finale will have to be piecemeal, with or without Buehrle. Hutchison should be available for several innings as he only threw 27 pitches Thursday against the Baltimore Orioles before he was knocked out by a lengthy rain delay.

With so much on the line Sunday, the Blue Jays won't be able to watch the Royals' game against the Twins because Major League Baseball scheduled every game to start just after 3 p.m. Eastern Time to make sure teams couldn't rest players based on results.

Gibbons isn't worried about that having any effect.

"It makes sense, other than you've got to start at three o'clock on the East Coast," Gibbons said. "It means you get home later."

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News from © The Canadian Press, 2015