BALTIMORE — Amid the celebration of an inconceivable turnaround from 106 losses to a wild-card spherical victory, Kansas Metropolis Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. slipped on a T-shirt that learn: “October Prepared.”
Was he ever.
For the second consecutive day, Witt drove within the profitable run because the Royals ousted the Baltimore Orioles from the playoffs with a 2-1 victory in entrance of 38,698 at Camden Yards. A 1-0 victory in Sport 1 gave the Royals their first postseason win since capturing a World Sequence title in 2015, and so they adopted in Sport 2 with one other triumph that encapsulated their ascent from a 56-106 file in 2023 to an American League Division Sequence showdown towards the New York Yankees.
“This group is particular,” Witt mentioned, “and we’re not completed but.”
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At 24, Witt is the centerpiece of a Royals workforce that was remade through free company over the winter and reimagined with midseason trades and waiver claims. What got here of it was an excessive amount of for the Orioles, who a yr after profitable 101 video games and being swept within the postseason by the Texas Rangers once more did not win a sport towards a lower-seeded workforce.
Whereas Baltimore obtained wonderful pitching all sequence, Kansas Metropolis’s was even higher — and the Royals had Witt, who joined Corridor of Famer Jimmie Foxx as the one gamers 24 or youthful with a profitable RBI in every of their groups’ first two postseason video games.
Each of Witt’s go-ahead hits got here within the sixth inning. Wednesday’s got here with runners on first and third and two outs, with Witt crushing a groundball up the center. Whereas Orioles second baseman Jordan Westburg snagged the ball after diving for it, Witt’s pace — he has been clocked because the quickest participant in baseball working from dwelling to first — allowed him to beat Westburg’s throw by a step.
“He is acquired the facility. He is acquired the bat-to-ball expertise. However he is additionally acquired the pace that he will get infield hits,” Royals supervisor Matt Quatraro mentioned. “He can do loads of various things. He’s actually the entire package deal in relation to bodily capability on the sphere.”
Witt had assist sandwiching him within the lineup. Second baseman Michael Massey led off the sport with a double off Baltimore starter Zach Eflin, and first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino — taking part in in solely his second sport since breaking his proper thumb Aug. 29 — singled him dwelling to stake Kansas Metropolis a 1-0 lead.
It held up for 4 innings, as Royals starter Seth Lugo carved by means of Baltimore’s lineup. After a Cedric Mullins dwelling run within the fifth inning, Baltimore loaded the bases with no outs towards Lugo. He induced an Anthony Santander pop-up, and reliever Angel Zerpa struck out Colton Cowser — he swung at a pitch that hit him and broke his left hand — and induced a groundout from Adley Rutschman, emblematic of an evening by which the Orioles went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring place.
“They did an awesome job of pitching out of hassle,” Orioles supervisor Brandon Hyde mentioned. “I assumed we gave every thing we had. I assumed we pitched actually, very well. We pitched out of site visitors virtually all the sport it felt prefer to maintain the rating the place it was. Only a disappointing end.”
With a powerful core of younger place gamers constructed round shortstop Gunnar Henderson, the Orioles entered the season as World Sequence contenders. Mustering just one run towards Kansas Metropolis left a bitter finish to the season, significantly with the upcoming free company of ace Corbin Burnes, who allowed one run in eight innings in Sport 1. Whereas Eflin wasn’t fairly pretty much as good, lasting simply 4 innings, the Orioles acknowledged that the pitching did not matter so long as the hitting was neutralized.
“If you lose like this,” Hyde mentioned, “there’s frustration, there’s anger, there’s disappointment since you felt like there was alternatives there in these couple video games to vary the rating. And it did not occur.”
What did occur was extra Kansas Metropolis magic. Along with Zerpa’s scoreless inning, right-hander John Schreiber, left-handers Sammy Lengthy and Kris Bubic, and nearer Lucas Erceg continued the Royals’ magnificent bullpen run, with 7⅔ scoreless innings within the wild-card sequence.
They’re going to want extra forward, because the rested Yankees will throw reigning AL Cy Younger Award winner Gerrit Cole in Sport 1 on Saturday towards right-hander Michael Wacha, one other of the offseason signings that turned across the Royals. They’re already simply the second workforce to lose 100-plus video games and win a playoff sequence the subsequent yr.
They haven’t any intention of stopping there — significantly not towards their historic rivals, whom they have not performed within the postseason since 1980, once they swept the Yankees in a five-game AL Championship Sequence.
“We did not come this far simply to return this far,” Witt mentioned, “so we will maintain getting after it, maintain making an attempt to create our personal legacy.”
