Orioles' season ends in another postseason sweep with 2-1 loss to Royals

BALTIMORE — In the end, the Orioles were never able to get their offense right.

After trying for months to jump-start an underperforming lineup, the Orioles’ season ended Wednesday with a 2-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals in Game 2 of the American League wild-card series at Camden Yards.

Injuries to their pitching staff threatened to derail their season before it even began and continued to be a theme deep into the summer, but it was the offense that went missing down the stretch and into October as Baltimore was swept in the best-of-three series after scoring only one run in two games.

Coming off a 1-0 shutout loss to upstart Kansas City in Game 1, the Orioles were looking everywhere for a spark. Cedric Mullins, one of the lone bright spots for the home team in the short series, did give them one with a solo home run off Royals starter Seth Lugo in the fifth inning, offering hope a turnaround was still possible. Yet the Orioles responded by squandering a no-outs, bases-loaded opportunity and never came close to plating a run again.

The frustration was evident, among both Orioles players and the 36,698 fans, the lowest attendance for any playoff game hosted at Camden Yards since the ballpark opened in 1992. As each potential rally ended with a swing that just missed catching the ball on the barrel or a highlight-reel play by a Royals defender, the reality that an early offseason was closing in was greeted by the Orioles with slammed bats and helmets.

Wednesday’s loss is the Orioles’ 10th straight in the postseason dating to the 2014 American League Championship Series, which the Royals swept in four games. The streak is tied for the fourth longest in MLB history and trails only the Minnesota Twins’ record 18-game stretch for the longest of the 21st century.

Starter Zach Eflin carried the unenviable burden of following up Corbin Burnes, who tossed eight-plus innings of one-run baseball in Game 1. Eflin ran into trouble immediately, allowing a leadoff double to second baseman Michael Massey. Superstar shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. moved Massey to third on a groundout one pitch later and designated hitter Vinnie Pasquantino brought him home on an RBI single to give Kansas City a quick 1-0 lead.

That score held through the rest of Eflin’s outing, which lasted only four innings and 75 pitches as manager Brandon Hyde put his well-rested bullpen to work. He mixed and matched his relievers to set up favorable platoon advantages, and it paid off in four of the five final innings. Cionel Pérez was charged with allowing the winning run after putting runners on the corners with two outs in the top of the sixth.

With Witt Jr., who drove in the lone run of Game 1, due up next, Hyde turned to right-hander Yennier Cano, his go-to reliever in the biggest moments all season. Cano threw a 1-1 sinker down in the zone and Witt hit a ground ball right up the middle.

Jordan Westburg made a diving play to stop the ball from reaching the outfield but couldn’t get up quickly enough to beat Witt on the throw to first. While a quick flip to second for the force out might have saved a run, the runner Massey was running with two outs and it would’ve been close either way.

For the second afternoon in a row, a one-run lead was all the Royals would need. The Orioles went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine base runners, none more crushing than the three left on base in the fifth. After Mullins’ home run, Ramón Urías reached on a single to center field, Gunnar Henderson walked and Westburg reached on an error by Lugo.

There was nobody out, the stadium was as loud as it was all evening. The momentum had shifted to the Orioles’ favor. But in keeping consistent with their past three months of mediocre play, the Orioles never got the big hit to put them in front. Anthony Santander popped out on a fastball above the strike zone as the final batter Lugo faced. Left-hander Angel Zerpa then struck out Colton Cowser, who was hit in the left hand while swinging and eventually had to leave the game with the injury, before Adley Rutschman grounded out to end the inning.

It was a familiar outcome for the Orioles, yet a crushing one. Their promising core of young stars has yet to perform on the October stage, and a second-half slump that cost them a chance at defending their AL East crown — and the bye to the division series that comes with it — raises plenty of questions about what needs to change for them to get over the playoff hump in 2025.

But those are questions for the months ahead. Their stinging loss Wednesday brought a swift end to what started as a season full of hope, ignited by new a ownership group led by David Rubenstein and reinforced with an impressive start to the year. As Henderson, their beacon of promise for the years ahead, struck out for the final out to end the Orioles’ season, a harsh reminder of how elusive a World Series can be finally hit them.

The core has arrived. The playoff success still has yet to follow.