Same as it ever was: The Royals sweep the Orioles out of the postseason

Pitching, speed and defense. The boys are movin' on to the ALDS.

When the Royals steamrolled the Baltimore Orioles in the 2014 ALCS, they were led by guys such as Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer. Alex Gordon and Salvador Perez. Of these 2024 Royals, only Perez remains. Yet on a return postseason trip to Baltimore, 10 years later, the result is unchanged. Another one-run game. Another victory. Another sweep.

This time, it was a 2-1 win in Baltimore to secure the sweep in the Wild Card series, a best-two out-of-three contest that won’t need a third game.

The Royals finished off the Orioles the only way they know how:

Good starting pitching? Check
Sparkling defense? Check
Blazing speed? Check
Timely hitting? Check and check.

In a most improbable season, the Royals followed their blueprint for success almost to the letter. And now, the boys are movin’ on to the ALDS.

It was a gray and dreary late afternoon in Baltimore and the mood of the crowd matched the weather. The vibe coming through the television (so take this for what it’s worth), was one of impending doom. The Orioles had been shut out and defeated by the slimmest of margins just 24 hours earlier. They were riding a nine-game postseason losing streak. The Orioles had held a slim lead in the AL East on September 6, with a Wild Card bye at stake. They stumbled to 11 losses in the season’s final 20 games. Edgy doesn’t begin to describe both the crowd and the Orioles.

It was a recognizable feeling. The Royals themselves didn’t exactly sprint into the postseason with some sort of strong finishing kick. They bumbled and stumbled down the stretch. They looked—and played—tight. Like a team that had everything to lose, even though they had yet to win a thing.

That’s why what happened in the first inning on Wednesday was so critical. Ballgames are never, ever settled three batters in. This one…Well, this one might have been.

For the second game in a row, newly minted leadoff hitter Michael Massey started the game with a base hit. This time, it was a double down the first base line and into the corner in right. Tuesday’s hero, Bobby Witt Jr. fought off an inside pitch with a perfect inside-out swing. It was a swing designed to get the ball to the right side to advance Massey, and advance he did. Add situational hitting to the list of things Witt does well, if you hadn’t already.

With one out, the Orioles decided to pull in their infield with Vinnie Pasquantino at the plate. I had figured the Orioles would try to jam Pasquantino in this series to make him prove that he was fully recovered from that broken thumb. No mercy in the postseason, right? The first pitch was a cut fastball on the inside that Pasquantino fouled off. He was unfazed. I am amazed that in both of these games, there was zero indication that his thumb had been operated on just a few weeks earlier. The next pitch was a sinker low and way, below the zone. Pasquantino reached for it and knocked it past the drawn-in infield to right, bringing home the game’s first run.

Incredible. Obviously, you always want to score runs early, but given the situation of this being an elimination game for the downtrodden Orioles, this was the absolute best-case scenario. It literally punched them in the mouth and took them immediately out of the game. The pendulum of pressure, already leaning toward the Baltimore dugout, swung all the way to the home side.

That’s what Pasquantino and his surgically repaired thumb did. All before Baltimore came to bat. The Orioles still had 27 outs in front of them. It felt like that single run took about half of those outs off the table.

I suppose the most surprising part of that whole sequence was that Pasquantino didn’t hit a sacrifice fly. He led the majors this year with 13 sac flies, even with missing the final month. For the year, Pasquantino brought in a runner from third with fewer than two outs 58.8 percent of the time. That was eight percent better than the league average.

Lordy, did the Royals miss The Pasquatch in this lineup.

Could Seth Lugo follow in the footsteps of Game One starter Cole Ragans and make one run stand up? He certainly made one entertain those thoughts given how he started the game. It was close to 2024 vintage Lugo in the first couple of innings.

He showcased six different pitches in the first inning, his lone mistake coming on a 3-2 pitch that plunked number two hitter Jordan Westburg. Lugo recovered, climbing the ladder against the dangerous Anthony Santander. First was an elevated 2-1 changeup at 90 MPH. That was followed with an even higher 95 MPH four-seamer.

This was how the sequence looked:

The changeup was a dangerous pitch, but Santander was caught off guard and couldn’t pull the trigger. That allowed Lugo to elevate with the heat.

The Royals had a plan in this series to neutralize Santander by getting him to chase hard stuff up and out of the zone. This was how he was pitched to in Game One.

File that away for later. We might revisit that when we get to the fifth inning. Ohhhh…Foreshadowing!

Lugo put a runner on in each of the first two innings with one out. He then struck out the next two batters. He also recorded a strikeout of Gunnar Henderson when the lineup flipped over in the third, giving him five whiffs of the first ten batters he faced.

This was the location and type of those five strikeouts.

Lugo had the Orioles chasing on 28 percent of the pitches he threw out of the zone. A number of those chases obviously came when he was ahead in the count. The changeup had a chase rate alone of 43 percent.

That’s an impossible pitch to ignore when you see that coming in with two strikes.

Even though the Orioles had the vibe of a condemned man, it didn’t mean they would completely surrender. There’s always a chance for a reprieve. And Seth Lugo, who cruised through the first three innings, suddenly began to experience a bit of turbulence.

Trouble lurked at the start of the fourth. Lugo didn’t get a fastball elevated against Santander and he lined a single to right. After a strikeout, Adley Rutschman went hunting on a first-pitch fastball that caught way too much of the center of the zone. He singled to right, advancing Santander to second.

That brought up former Royal Ryan O’Hearn. In his first at bat, Lugo worked him away and O’Hearn singled. In this at bat, Lugo came inside. O’Hearn was able to get around on a cutter on the inside edge.

Who is your favorite defender on the Royals not named Bobby Witt Jr. and why is it Michael Massey? Seriously, I’ve been writing about this for months at this point…the guy is just sublime at second base. The ball wasn’t hit with much force, just 79 MPH off the bat, and Massey was cheating over toward first with O’Hearn a guy who really pulls the ball on the ground. For Massey to get to his right, stab the ball that takes a wicked hop and then make the play at first…amazing. That dive saved a run, which would’ve tied the game.

The Royals and Lugo still weren’t out of the woods. The runners had moved up to second and third. The dangerous Ryan Mountcastle was up. Lugo caught a break and had a sweeper that was off the outside edge called a strike. He then went way inside to the right-handed batter with a sinker for a ball. With the count even at 1-1, this was the next pitch.

Lugo’s sinker averaged around 14 inches of run this year. That pitch was measured at 17 inches of horizontal movement. It was so similar to the previous pitch that was much further inside. Mountcastle surely recognized this and saw that it was starting a bit closer to the plate. It completely tied him up. Instead of hitting in a favorable count, Mountcastle was now battling on Lugo’s terms.

One pitch later, on a sweeper moving in the other direction, Mountcastle flew out. The threat was averted.

As good a sequence as that one was to end the fourth, the one against Cedric Mullins to open the fifth was the opposite. I get not wanting to give in and put the leadoff hitter on via a walk, especially in the middle innings of a one-run game. Still, this was not the ideal location of a 3-2 pitch against the lone guy in the Baltimore lineup who seemed ready to hit.

Lugo had been ahead 0-2. He tried to get Mullins to chase a sinker, but it was too far off the dish. Ditto the two curveballs that were way down and out of the zone. The four-seamer was just served on a platter and Mullins did not miss. Tie game.

From there Ramón Urías looped a single to center, Henderson walked on five pitches with all five being well out of the zone and Lugo couldn’t handle a tapper off the bat of Westberg and was charged with an error. A key part of the Royals defensive excellence this year came from their pitchers. A bit ironic that an error from perhaps the best fielder of them all could unravel this game.

With the bases loaded, Santander dug in for a third time against Lugo. Remember how I noted that the Royals were attacking the switch-hitter with elevated hard stuff? That was the attack mode here.

That third pitch was skied with a 71-degree launch angle. It barely made it down the line to first base—94 feet and right into the glove of first baseman Yuli Gurriel.

That was the end of the line for Lugo. He finished with just 4.1 innings, allowing five hits and that one run off the Mullins homer. He struck out six and walked the one batter. It wasn’t vintage Lugo, he wasn’t at his sharpest, but he battled and largely kept the Oriole bats off balance. It was enough.

There was still trouble afoot. The bases were loaded with one out for Angel Zerpa. Zerpa closed out the regular season with seven consecutive scoreless outings totaling 6.2 innings. He had struck out eight. He could use a strikeout in this situation.

Zerpa ran three pitches away from Colton Cowser to jump ahead 1-2. The fourth pitch of the at bat was a sinker that ran inside. Cowser started to swing, realized the pitch was coming for him, tried to check and couldn’t. The pitch hit his hand as he committed to his swing. Strikeout.

Literally and figuratively painful. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a swinging strike in the location as pitch four.

Zerpa is just a completely different pitcher since returning from Omaha in mid-September. He had lost his feel for the slider and worked with Triple-A pitching coach Dane Johnson to get that feel back. It had plenty of bite on Wednesday. Couple that with a sinker coming in an average of 98 MPH and you’re looking at a new lefty weapon out of this bullpen.

Zerpa got Rutschman to ground out to Witt to end the threat and the inning.

When the final chapter is written in this 2024 season, whenever that comes, the word resilient will be used again and again. It’s the perfect adjective for this team. They can take a punch. Then they can throw a devastating haymaker of their own. Although with the way this offense has been going of late, maybe it’s a light jab. It doesn’t matter, I suppose.

Part of that resiliency is coming back immediately. Don’t waste time. Don’t let your opponent believe they have a chance, even if they just squandered a prime opportunity to take the lead. Especially in that scenario.

So the Royals went out and scored the go-ahead run in the top of the sixth. The rally started in the most Royal way imaginable—with a chopper off the bat of Kyle Isbel that went for an infield single. When I say “chopper” I mean he drove the ball down into the ground with such force, it popped up maybe 100 feet in the air. It had a launch angle of -61 degrees. It did not register an exit velocity.

After Maikel Garcia struck out, that leadoff hitter Massey was at it again, singling up the middle to scoot Isbel over to third.

It was Bobby Witt Jr. time.

Witt took a sinker for a strike. He watched a four-seamer up and out of the zone for a ball. He got a sinker for the third pitch.

This is Witt motoring down the first base line at 31.3 feet per second. That’s elite speed. Hell, it’s so elite, he practically broke the meter. What’s beyond elite? Probably perfect. Yeah…Witt has perfect speed.

Once Westburg left his feet to make this play, he had no chance. He was doomed the second it left the bat and Witt broke out of the box. Friends, we are watching a true five-tool player who is just now entering his prime. If watching something like this doesn’t get you to jump up out of your seat and sports yell, you should probably get an EKG. Isbel scores and the Royals regain the lead at 2-1

For the second game in a row, Witt drives in the go-ahead run. He’s the second player in history to record the game-winning RBI in his first two postseason games. The other? Jimmie Foxx. I’m thinking of quitting this writing gig because here we are, just three years into this guy’s career and I’m running out of things to say. Amazing! Extraordinary! Astonishing! Unbelievable!

He’s just swell.

Through the television, it seemed as though the mood lifted a bit after the fifth. Crowds like that are just wanting something to cheer for and the Mullins home run gave them that. Then the bases were loaded. It was edging closer to frenzy status. Shutting down the Orioles without allowing another run was like sticking a pin in a balloon. Bobby Witt Jr. coming through with his blazing speed to beat out a single to score Isbel was like taking that same balloon that wasn’t yet fully deflated and blowing it up with a stick of dynamite. Overkill perhaps, but there was a finality there. Baltimore was not coming back.

Not against this revamped bullpen. All season long, we’ve been hoping, pleading and begging that this wayward collection of relievers would find their way. It took about five months, but lo…the bullpen in September was lights out. In the season’s final month, they posted a 10.6 SO/9 and a 2.8 BB/9 to go along with a 2.77 ERA. That double-digit strikeout rate was huge. It serves notice.

In the two games against Baltimore, the Kansas City bullpen went 7.2 innings, allowing two hits and three walks while striking out eight. As you are aware, they did not allow a run.

After Zerpa came John Schreiber who pitched a clean inning, punching out two. Then Sam Long for three batters, Kris Bubic and, for the finale, Lucas Erceg. The Long-Bubic-Erceg trio also put the finishing touches on Tuesday’s game.

On Wednesday, the bullpen retired 14 of 16 batters faced, allowing only a single and a walk. The early season liability has evolved into a postseason strength. I didn’t think it could happen with this group. They’ve shown something over this last month-plus of baseball. This could be the key to the next series.

And there will be a next series. Erceg struck out Henderson to put an exclamation point on the sweep and the Royals will be moving on to face the Yankees. The story of 2024 is just too good to end now. We’re guaranteed another chapter. Playoff baseball!