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TORONTO - Before Thursday night's series finale at Rogers Centre, there were subtle signs that the Red Sox were positioning themselves for champagne showers before heading out of town.
The game between the Astros and Athletics was on all the clubhouse television sets, allowing the Red Sox to see if they would actually be clinching a postseason berth before their game with the Blue Jays even began.
And outside the Sox's inner-sanctum, Red Sox owners John Henry and Mike Gordon joined team president Sam Kennedy in milling about on the field, interacting with Sox fans and members of the front office, wearing the good mood of a group who believed they would be celebrating a few hours later.
The players, however, showed no overt signs of anticipation. It was business as usual. And, unfortunately for Alex Cora's club, this time around, business was not good.
The party to relish in a postseason berth was going to have to wait.
After Houston rolled over the A's, the Red Sox fell flat against the Blue Jays, dropping a 6-1 decision in which they didn't manage a baserunner against any of the host's first three pitchers until Jarren Duran's double in the seventh inning.
While the Red Sox left Canada still sitting with a Magic Number of one, for now, the defeat simply served as an inconvenience. They still need just one win in their final three games, against Detroit at Fenway Park, or a single loss from Houston in their three-game set in Anaheim.
Again ... an invconvenience ... for now.
The Sox sit one game up on the Tigers for the second wild card spot, and two ahead of the Astros. While the Boston and Detroit couldn't end up tied at season's end, the Red Sox could finish even with Houston, whom they own the tiebreaker against.
Some good news that could be plucked from the Red Sox's loss was the performance of starter Brayan Bello, who was coming off an uninspiring four-run, four-inning outing against the A's. This time, Bello shut out Toronto for the first five innings.
But a throwing error by Trevor Story on Vlad Guerrero Jr.'s grounder to lead off the sixth inning, followed by a walk to Addison Barger and a hit batsman against Anthony Santander, forced Bello from the game, bringing on Justin Wilson.
The usually reliable lefty immediately proceeded to allow the Blue Jays to officially ruin the Red Sox's party by letting Daulton Varsho hit the first-ever grand slam allowed by Wilson in his 654 big league games.
The silver lining wasn't hard to find. That was the Red Sox's probably No. 2 starter in any wild-card series, Bello, getting back on track. All well and good. But it was still difficult to shake the what-might-have-been vibe that went from definitive party planning to potentially having to wait until after midnight Friday for news out of Angel Stadium.
Champagne put on ice. Page turned. A little less euphoria and a little more anxiety.