The Orioles will host Kansas City in the best-of-three AL Wild Card Series at Camden Yards this week.
With the Royals beating Atlanta and Detroit falling to the Chicago White Sox on Sunday afternoon, Kansas City (86-76) clinched the second wild-card spot via tiebreaker. Brandon Hyde’s club concluded the regular season with a 6-2 win over Minnesota to complete a three-game sweep and finish 91-71. It’s the first time Baltimore has registered back-to-back seasons of at least 90 wins since 1982 and 1983.
The Orioles won the season series against the Royals by a 4-2 margin and plus-2 run differential (29-27), but these clubs haven’t played since April, which makes for an intriguing matchup after Kansas City enjoyed a 30-game improvement from a 106-loss campaign last year. Baltimore and the Royals will be meeting in the postseason for the second time and first since 2014 when Kansas City won the pennant with a four-game sweep in the AL Championship Series.
Each club has already announced its Game 1 starter with right-hander Corbin Burnes (15-9, 2.52 ERA) facing lefty Cole Ragans (11-9, 3.14 ERA) on Tuesday. They pitched against each other twice this season with Ragans outperforming Burnes in an eventual 4-3 home win for the Orioles on April 3. In the April 20 rematch at Kaufmann Stadium, the Baltimore lineup clobbered Ragans for seven runs and nine hits over 1 2/3 innings as Burnes earned the victory in a 9-7 final.
