To reach the 2014 ALCS, the Orioles knocked off the Tigers in the ALDS, in a three game sweep. They did so after winning the AL East during the regular season, with a record of 96-66. Meanwhile, the Royals knocked off the Oakland Athletics in the AL Wild Card Game and then defeated the Angels in the ALDS, in yet another clean sweep. Kansas City finished the regular season with a record of 89-73. These two clubs met seven times during the regular season, with Kansas City taking four of the seven games. As far as the playoffs are concerned, this marks the first time that the two teams will meet in October.
Here's the date and times for every possible game in this series:
October 10 Kansas City Royals @ Baltimore Orioles Oriole Park at Camden Yards 8:07 ET
October 11 Kansas City Royals @ Baltimore Orioles Oriole Park at Camden Yards 4:07 ET
October 13 Baltimore Orioles @ Kansas City Royals Kauffman Stadium 8:07 ET
October 14 Baltimore Orioles @ Kansas City Royals Kauffman Stadium 8:07 ET
October 15† Baltimore Orioles @ Kansas City Royals Kauffman Stadium 4:07 ET
October 17† Kansas City Royals @ Baltimore Orioles Oriole Park at Camden Yards 8:07 ET
October 18† Kansas City Royals @ Baltimore Orioles Oriole Park at Camden Yards 8:07 ET
All games can be seen on TBS.
This is going to prove to be an interesting matchup. From an offensive perspective, nobody in the American League hit more home runs than the Orioles, while nobody hit less than the Royals. In the post season both teams have hit four each. I think its safe to say that pitching is the real reason why both teams are standing where they are right now.
Baltimore got here with clutch hitting that's for sure. But there's a few differences between playing the Tigers and the Royals. The Tigers starting pitching was pretty good, being able to hold the middle of the Baltimore offense in check. Then the Tigers handed it off to the bullpen and the wheels fell off. Detroit's pen was hammered by the Baltimore offense. We know they Orioles can score runs, but their starting pitching staff showed they had trouble with that Detroit offense. This is going to be interesting when facing the Royals pitching staff
Kansas City's pitching staff was able to shut down the high powered Angels offense during their Division Round Series. Kansas City has the lowest ERA of any team in the AL in the playoffs, and they finished 4th during the regular season in that regards, while the Orioles finished 3rd during the regular season. As we know though, during the playoffs, for the most part, what was done during the regular season don't mean squat.
Long story short this series is going to come down to pitching. In theory, the starting pitching would be even, but that's on paper. James Shields, Yordano Ventura, Jason Vargas and Jeremy Guthrie are projected to take the mound for Kansas City. Nobody on that staff, pen included, gave up more than two runs in a game against the Angels. Wei-Yin Chen was the only starter who really got rocked by the Tigers, otherwise the rest of the rotation looked fine. same thing with the pen. Pitching is going to be tight in this series. What the Royals have working for them is the fact that they held the heart of the Angels lineup to three hits in the entire divisional round, while the Baltimore pitching staff couldn't really do the same thing to the heart of the Tigers lineup. That could play a factor in this series.
I just have this gut feeling that the series is going to come down to the pitching staffs and Kansas City's looks a little better at the moment than that of Baltimore Do the Orioles have good pitching? Yes. Do they have better hitters? It's debatable but from a certain standpoint yes. But Kansas City has a pitching edge, a defensive edge, and as was noted against Detroit an edge on the base paths. It's going to be a tough and very entertaining series to watch that's for sure. When all is said and done the Royals will be back in the World Series for the first time in 29 years. Kansas City will become the 4th American League Wild Card team, since the Wild Card was instituted in 1995, to play in the World Series.The others were the 2002 Anaheim Angels (beat the Giants in 7), the 2004 Boston Red Sox (beat the Cardinals in 4) and the 2006 Detroit Tigers (lost in 5 to the Cardinals).
The Pick: Kansas City in 7!
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