Clash of Resilience: Orioles and Royals Set for Thrilling AL Wild-Card Showdown
After a hard-fought 162-game season, the MLB Playoffs have officially arrived, and in less than a day, October baseball will begin. On Monday morning, the NL Wild-Card situation remains uncertain, with the Braves and Mets playing a doubleheader due to a rainout to determine who will advance to the postseason. Meanwhile, the AL Wild-Card seeding has been determined and there are some exciting series matchups to look forward to in the Wild-Card round. The Detroit Tigers' late-season run to secure their first postseason berth in 10 years may be the biggest story going into their series against the Houston Astros. However, there is also plenty of young talent between the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals, making the other AL Wild-Card matchup between both teams just as exciting to look forward to.
Both the Royals and the Orioles ended the regular season with similar performances going into the postseason. Along with the Yankees and Phillies, the Orioles had one of the best records through the first three months in MLB after a dominant start to the 2024 season. However, the team suffered multiple injuries to key players toward the end of the season, including starting pitchers Grayson Rodriguez and Kyle Bradish, as well as infielders Jordan Westburg, Ramon Urias, and Jorge Mateo. While the Orioles had been struggling tremendously over the past few months, Westburg and Urias' return to the starting lineup during the last week of the regular season provided much-needed reinforcements for an Orioles team that looked to get hot going into the postseason. The Orioles won five of their final six games to close off the regular season, including a sweep of the Minnesota Twins and a series victory over the Yankees.
Conversely, the Royals came into the season expecting to do better despite their 2023 record of 56-106; yet, they added several quality free agents to their team in the form of Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, and Hunter Renfroe. Even while the Royals, led by AL MVP contender Bobby Witt Jr., advanced to the postseason for the first time in nine years, they also had to cope with similar struggles to end the regular season. This consisted of two separate losing streaks of seven games in late August and the middle of September. Even though the Royals aren't the clear favorites to win the World Series going into the postseason, their 2024 comeback to relevance is something to behold. The Royals, who are equipped with a number of weapons, could defeat the Orioles in their Wild-Card series if their young stars, such as Witt Jr., Cole Ragans, and company can outshine the likes of Orioles superstars Gunnar Henderson, Anthony Santander, Adley Rutschman, ace Corbin Burnes, Zach Eflin and Westburg, who had a .318 batting average, two home runs, six RBIs and a 1.075 OPS against the Royals this season.
With the series getting started on Tuesday afternoon at 4:08 p.m. ET, one of the key elements that will determine who advances to play the top-seeded Yankees in the ALDS is which side can provide the clutch hits when runners are in scoring position. One of the primary causes of the Orioles' troubles at times this season has been their failure to regularly score runs when there were runners on base and drive them in. For instance, in a 5-3 loss on September 18th against the Giants, the Orioles went two-for-10 with runners in scoring position, leaving eight men on base altogether. The Orioles might find their season abruptly ending in less than 72 hours if they revert to their mid-season troubles in a quick best-of-three-game series against the Royals this week.
In addition to making the most of runners in scoring position, whichever club's ace can outperform the other and put their team in the greatest position to win Game One, might determine who has the edge to move on in the postseason. In the opening game, the Royals will start Cole Ragans, who had an excellent regular season with an 11-9 record, 3.14 ERA, and a career-high 223 strikeouts. Meanwhile, Orioles ace Corbin Burnes ended September on a positive note, regaining his normal form after struggling in August with a 7.36 ERA and rebounding in September with a 1.20 ERA. Ultimately, there are many fascinating storylines to anticipate from this week's Orioles vs. Royals Wild-Card series, which promises to be an exciting and fascinating series to watch as well.
