BALTIMORE—What happened? As the Orioles’ clubhouse door opened, players stood in full uniform in shocked silence. Some walked to others, exchanging hugs and good wishes, but the overriding emotion was shock.
For the second straight year, the Orioles were swept out of a playoff series by a team they’d been favored to beat.
The Orioles lost Game 2 of the Wild Card Series, 2-1, to the Kansas City Royals, getting just six hits a day after they had only five in a 1-0 loss to the Royals.
For the Orioles, it was a second consecutive galling postseason sweep. A year before, the 101-win Orioles lost three straight to the Texas Rangers in the Division Series.
Their postseason losing streak is 10, dating to 2014, and it’s now 41 straight years without the Orioles in the World Series.
In Game 2, Cedric Mullins’ fifth-inning home run was the Orioles’ only run. In that same inning, they loaded the bases with none out, and couldn’t push across another run.
In the two Wild Card losses, the Orioles struck out 23 times while walking only four times, were 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position and left 16 runners on base. They had just three extra-base hits.
“We didn’t succeed with runners in scoring position, especially myself,” Anthony Santander said through a translator. “Pretty disappointed knowing that I could have done a better job for the team.”
“This hurt just because we had opportunities to win both games,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Last year Game 1 opportunity, didn’t win, but then the next two kind of got out of hand. This year you felt like these were two winnable games.”
Why didn’t the Orioles win? Their pitching was certainly good enough. Kansas City scored three runs on 14 hits in the two games, and left 12 runners on base in Game 2.
During the Orioles’ regular season, they were just 14-18 in one-run games, and both their losses were by one run. During the 162-game season, they lost only three games when allowing two runs or fewer.
“I don’t know [that] there’s one specific thing,” Ryan O’Hearn said. “Things bounce the other way. Maybe it’s a couple of lucky bounces. You’ve got to have some breaks. It just like any time something positive was going to happen, it just didn’t. I don’t really have a good answer for you right now.
“I believe in this group. There’s so much talent in here and so many good baseball players that I’m shocked. A little bit embarrassing. I feel like we let the fans down.”
Colton Cowser struck out while fracturing his left hand when he was hit by the pitch with the bases loaded in the fifth. That was sandwiched between a popup by Santander and a groundout by Adley Rutschman.
“It’s sore,” Cowser said about his hand. “I’m more disappointed in the result of what happened. It’s just one of those things. I was looking out for a slider and you kind of get one that runs up and in on you. Tried to get out of the way and ended up swinging.
“It sucks. Personally, it feels like I kind of let the team down there. Just get hit by a pitch there, we take the lead. Overall, it’s not a good feeling.”
Shortstop Gunnar Henderson could finish in the top five among Most Valuable Player candidates. The two-time Most Valuable Oriole hit .281 with an .893 OPS, 37 home runs and 92 RBIs.
“I liked our chances. I thought we made steps in the right direction,” Henderson said. “We had some opportunities and we went out there and battled our butts off in both games and just didn’t come through.”
During the last two regular seasons, the Orioles won 192 games but none in the postseason.
“The thing that’s disappointing is just the fact that we have this group of guys, you can see how close they are,” Rutschman said. “We’re playing for a World Series. That’s been our goal all year and to not make it to that point is obviously a letdown. Now you’ve got to say goodbye to guys that you don’t know if they’re going to be back or not. Some of these guys have had big impacts on people in this room. It’s emotional.”
What do the free agents think about their future? Santander made his debut with the Orioles in 2017 as a Rule 5 draft pick. This year, he hit 44 home runs, third most in the majors, behind only Aaron Judge’s 58 and Shohei Ohtani’s 54.
“They don’t want it to end here,” Santander said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen, but I would have liked to have gone further in the playoffs.”
Santander is a fan favorite, and he’s enjoyed his time in Baltimore.
“No words, just really happy and proud and I thank this fan base for supporting me and this team for giving me the opportunity to play here all these years.”
Burnes came to the Orioles on February 1st, and he pitched gallantly. He’s the most attractive free-agent pitcher on the market.
“We’ll see what it brings,” Burnes said. “I haven’t thought about it much about what’s going on next. It’s going to be a crazy offseason. It’s going to be wild. I’m just trying to digest what happened. It was an early exit to what we thought was going to be a long run.”
Backup catcher James McCann, who’s 34, is also a free agent.
“I haven’t really thought that far ahead,” McCann said. “We didn’t come into this series expecting this to be our last series. We didn’t come into tonight’s game even down 0-1, expecting this to be our last game. I haven’t thought much past this particular moment, honestly. “
Was there one play that stood out? The eventual series-winning hit was Bobby Witt Jr.’s infield single that scored Kyle Isbel from third in the sixth. Jordan Westburg, moving to his right, got to the ball and threw it to first, but not in time.
“Witt’s fast. I got to the ball and made a stop, just sandwiched in between the dirt and the glove,” Westburg said. “Didn’t pick it clean right away. I probably took an extra half-second to get my feet underneath me and try and get off a throw. He’s too fast.
“I want to make that play. It’s a tough call. I’m trying not to beat myself up over that, but I’m going to be running through those moments for the next couple of days, but I know how to get through that. I’ve been in that situation before, so looking forward to building on it this offseason.
He could have tried to flip to Henderson at short for a forceout of Micheal Massey.
“It didn’t go through my head,” Westburg said. “Game’s moving fast. I was playing up the middle, so that means that Gunnar was shaded over towards the six-hole. On a play like that with the team speed they have, I thought my only play was at first.”
Henderson wasn’t sure he could have gotten the forceout of Massey at second.
“It was a great play,” Henderson said. “I was in the hole a little bit, so I was having to bust over there to get it. I felt whatever way he decided to go. Obviously, the guy at first could run. Bobby can obviously run really well. I’m going to be moving closer to the bag. Heck of a play in a big spot. He made a heck of a play stopping it.”
Hyde didn’t fault Westburg or Henderson.
“Jordan, great play,” Hyde said. “For being so young, what a great player. Very, very difficult. So I haven’t looked at the replay to see if he thought he had time or not [for the forceout]. Obviously, when you’re on your stomach it’s going to be tough to throw to first base. He did the best he possibly could. I haven’t looked at the transfer or where he was at that point, but I thought Westy did a great job of getting to the ball.”
What does it mean? The Orioles have many questions this offseason, and they’ll spend the next several months trying to put together a team that can advance in the postseason.
What’s the word? “We just couldn’t scrap together a couple of runs. It’s unfortunate. It’s a tired thing to say, but it’s baseball. Weird things happen.”-Cowser on the season.
What’s the stat of the day? 38,698. For the second straight game, Oriole Park had several thousand empty seats. For Game 1, attendance was 41,506.
What’s next? The Orioles will gather for spring training in Sarasota in mid-February and open the 2025 season in Toronto on March 27th. Their home opener is against Boston on March 31st.