Things went very badly for the Baltimore Orioles in the playoffs. Even when they had the bases loaded and could have scored from a hit by pitch, Colton Cowser swung at a pitch thrown right at him, missed, and broke his left hand.
They didn’t score in that situation and struggled to score at all while being swept by the Kansas City Royals in their AL Wild Card Series. They lost 1-0 and 2-1, marking a sweep in their only postseason series for the second year in a row.
“I thought we battled as well as we possibly could,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “We persevered. We got into the postseason. We hosted a wild card. We just had a tough time offensively these two games against a really good pitching staff and a scrappy team.”
Last season, Baltimore won the AL East but was swept in a best-of-five Division Series by the eventual World Series champion Texas. Hyde mentioned that this loss hurt differently because his team was close in both games but couldn’t finish.
After the games, there were more questions than answers, especially since the Orioles had scored a lot during the regular season. Only three teams scored more runs, and only the New York Yankees hit more home runs.
Cedric Mullins’ home run in Game 2 got the crowd of under 39,000 at Camden Yards excited, but besides that, the offense just didn’t show up.
“This is the time of year you want to showcase it,” second baseman Jordan Westburg said. “This is the time of year when we needed it most. Just didn’t happen for us.”
Baltimore’s pitching staff faced many long-term injuries this season, especially in the starting rotation. However, the pitchers weren’t the issue in October.
The Orioles went 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position after going 4 for 19 in those situations during three playoff losses to the Rangers in 2023. Coming up empty with the bases loaded and no outs after Mullins homered in Game 2 turned out to be the crucial moment in another October failure.
