BALTIMORE — Things went so poorly for the Baltimore Orioles in the playoffs that even when they had the bases loaded and a hit by pitch scores a run, Colton Cowser swung at a ball thrown right at him, missed and broke his left hand in the process.
They did not score in that situation and did not score much at all in getting swept by the Kansas City Royals in their AL Wild Card Series. Losses of 1-0 and 2-1 sent the Orioles out in a sweep in their only postseason series for a second consecutive year.
“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.”
Baltimore a season ago won the AL East but was swept in a best-of-five Division Series by eventual World Series champion Texas. Hyde said this one hurt differently because his team was in each of the winnable games and fell short.
Afterward, there were fewer answers than runs, which the Orioles produced aplenty during the regular season. Only three teams scored more, and only the New York Yankees hit more homers.
Cedric Mullins’ home run in Game 2 put a jolt into the crowd of under 39,000 at Camden Yards on Wednesday — but otherwise, offense never materialized.
“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 was decimated by long-term injuries this season — especially the starting rotation. But the arms weren’t the problem in October.
The Orioles were 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position after going 4 for 19 in those situations over 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 pivotal moment in another October collapse.
“We didn’t succeed with runners in scoring position, especially myself,” said slugger Anthony Santander, who hit 44 home runs during the regular season.
Santander, however, popped up with the bases loaded for the first out of the fifth inning as Baltimore’s biggest threat began to fall apart.
“Pretty disappointed knowing I could have done a better job for the team. That’s just the way it went with the offense,” he said.
The Orioles haven’t won a postseason game since advancing to the 2014 AL Championship Series, where they were swept by Kansas City. Now, they might lose ace Corbin Burnes to a big payday in free agency — and there are other important questions to answer. But players sounded an optimistic tone about the future, moments after another crushing defeat.
“I feel like we made steps in the right direction,” star shortstop Gunnar Henderson said. “We’re obviously excited where this can go. Look forward to taking that next step.”
___
AP freelance writer Patrick Stevens contributed.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
