O's game blog: The Wild Card round opener, Orioles versus Kansas City

In the postseason in two straight years for the first time since 1996 and 1997, the Orioles host the Kansas City Royals today in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card round.

It’s a best two-of-three series with the Orioles hosting two games and all three, if necessary.

For what it’s worth, since the 12-team MLB playoff format started with the 2022 postseason, all eight Wild Card round series have ended with 2-0 sweeps. There has yet to be a third and deciding game.

In 2022, Cleveland defeated Tampa Bay, Seattle beat Toronto, Philadelphia beat St. Louis and San Diego topped the New York Mets, all by 2-0.

There were four 2-0 sweeps last year for Minnesota over Toronto, Texas over Tampa Bay, Arizona over Milwaukee and Miami over Philadelphia.

The Orioles made the American League playoffs in 2023 as AL East winner with 101 victories. But they were swept three in a row by Texas in AL Division Series. They hosted the first two in Baltimore and lost Game 3 at Texas.

The Orioles scored 11 runs in that series on 25 hits and hit three homers – one each by Anthony Santander, Gunnar Hendeson and Aaron Hicks.

Their pitchers gave up 21 runs on 30 hits versus Texas. Baltimore starting pitchers of Kyle Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kremer allowed 20 hits and 13 runs in just eight innings. The last two starters, Rodriguez and Kremer lasted just 1 2/3 innings each.

The Orioles are 52-43 all-time in postseason games and they have lost eight in a row dating to the 2014 AL Championship Series when they got swept four in a row by Kansas City.

The No. 4 seed Orioles (91-71) ended the regular season with a three-game sweep at Minnesota. They won five of their last six and seven of the last 10 games. They went 33-33 after the All-Star break and 44-37 at home.

The No. 5 seed Royals (86-76) won on the regular season’s final day Sunday to get that fifth seed. But they did lose nine of their past 13 games. Kansas City was 11-18 in its last 29 games starting Aug. 28^th. They were 41-40 on the road. In their last 11 games, the Royals scored just 20 runs batting .173 with a .477 team OPS.

These teams have not played since April 21, but the Orioles won four of six games in the first month. They won two of three in Baltimore during the second series of the year, winning the first and third games via walk-off victories. The Orioles outscored K.C., 29-27.

Right-hander Corbin Burnes (15-9, 2.92 ERA) gets the Game 1 start for the Orioles. He entered September with an ERA of 3.23 and lowered that with an ERA of 1.20 in five starts during the last month. Starting Aug. 28, he was 3-3 with a 1.29 ERA and .550 OPS against his last six starts.

Over his past three starts - two versus Detroit, one against the Yankees - Burnes gave up seven hits and one run in 19 innings with five walks and 24 strikeouts.

In two starts in April, he went 1-0 with a 3.97 ERA versus Kansas City. In five career games, he is 3-0 with a 2.15 ERA and 0.921 WHIP versus K.C.

He ranks tied for first in the AL with 22 quality starts, is third in innings (194 1/3), fourth in ERA and tied for fifth in wins. Burnes is sixth in opponents OPS (.622) and eighth in WHIP (1.10).

Lefty Cole Ragans (11-9, 3.14 ERA) is his mound opponent. Like Burnes, Ragans had a brilliant September going 1-0 with a 1.08 ERA and 1.000 WHIP. 

On April 3, Ragans pitched 6 1/3 scoreless on one hit against the Orioles. But April 20 at Kansas City, he got an early knockout, allowing seven runs and nine hits in 1 1/3 innings. It was easily his shortest outing of the year. 

Ragans ranks eighth in the AL in ERA, second in strikeouts and first in strikeouts per nine innings at 10.8. He is tied with Detroit's Tarik Skubal for first in the AL with a 32.0 swing and miss percentage. 

Ragans averages 95.4 mph on his fastball, which he uses 42 percent and gets a 47.8 percent whiff rate on his changeup, which he uses 24 percent. 

According to MLB.com's Sarah Langs, last year in the playoffs teams to score first went 32-9 and teams to out-homer their opponent went 25-4. The year before teams to out-homer their opponent went 22-6. 

In 2023, 41.0 percent of runs were scored via homers. That went up to 49.1 percent in the postseason.