3 things to watch this weekend in Canadian sports

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From a pair of critical Olympic qualifiers to a baseball post-season race, here are three things for Canadian sports fans to follow this weekend:

Olympic women's soccer qualifier: Canada is in danger of not making it to Paris

Coming off their disappointing showing at the Women's World Cup, where they failed to advance past the group stage, the Olympic champions face a winner-take-all playoff vs. Jamaica for the CONCACAF region's final spot in next summer's Games in Paris.

Canada, ranked 10th in the world, trounced 37th-ranked Jamaica 3-0 when they last met 14 months ago in the semifinals of their regional championship tournament. But the Reggae Girlz performed much better than Canada at this summer's World Cup, shutting out all three of their group opponents (including scoreless draws vs. No. 5 France and No. 8 Brazil) to reach the knockout stage for the first time. So, Canada can no longer treat this playoff as a mere formality.

Olympic women's volleyball qualifier: Canada still has a shot

If the Canadians don't qualify here, they could still get into the 12-team Olympic event in Paris on the strength of their world ranking next June. But they're currently No. 11, so they'd be on the bubble.

Watch Canada vs. Mexico on Saturday at 1 a.m. ET and Canada vs. the Czech Republic on Sunday at 1 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.

Baseball: The Blue Jays start a big series at Tampa Bay tonight

Last night's loss to a marvellous Gerrit Cole and the New York Yankees snapped the Blue Jays' five-game winning streak and dropped them to just a half-game