The American League Wild Card series have both ended in sweeps. Both series did not go as we expected as well. The Royals are heading off to face the Yankees while the Tigers are off to play the Guardians.
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The Baltimore Orioles were a very good team in the regular season. The team as whole was second in home runs in the MLB. They were eleventh in on base percentage and seventh in batting average. Despite all that offense during the regular season, they could only muster one run in the two games of the Wild Card series.
Game 1 was a nail bitter of a game. The pitching match up was Cole Ragans vs Corbin Burnes. Ragans going six innings while Burnes went eight. They were neck and neck through the first half of the game, but you know that someone has to give up a run. It was not easy, but the Royals were able to grind out a run against the stellar defense of the Orioles.
The only run scored in this game was made off of a walk. Maikel Garcia was walked, then he stole second and then Michael Massey ground out to second, but Garcia made it to third on the play. Bobby Witt was able to single to left field and that was enough to get Garcia home. That would be the winning run. This game was a grind and it was a battle between two amazing pitchers.
The next day in Game 2 was more of the same. Kansas City was able to get on the board in early in the first inning. Now fast forward to the fifth inning when Baltimore was finally able to score a run in the series. Cedric Mullins homered off of Seth Lugo. Lugo would exit the game in this inning and that is what started the bullpen battle for the rest of the game. Kansas city was able to take the lead back when Kyle Isbel was sent home by again Bobby Witt. The game would end with a 2-1 score and the Royals would move on to face the Yankees.
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The Detroit Tigers and Houston Astros was the surprise series of the Wild Card round. The Astros were favorites to move on. Game 1 was a bit of a tone setter for the series with the Tigers going up 3-0 after the top of the second and would not budge for quite some time.
Lead by pitcher Tarik Skubal who pitched six innings and threw for six strikeouts and did not give up a run while only conceding four hits. Once he turned the ball over, the bullpen took over and just kept the momentum going. The Astros would get a run on the board in the bottom of the 9th, but would not be able to add more.
Game 2 was more interesting. As the Tigers went with a bit of a different approach to pitching with reliever Tyler Holton starting the game. He pitched one inning and then handed the ball off. The Tigers would use seven pitchers and none of them would pitch more than an 1 2/3 innings. The scoring would begin in the 6th as the Tigers would draw first blood and go up one. The Astros would answer back in the bottom of the 7th with two runs of their own. Detroit would really grab this game and series by the reins in the 8th, as they put up 4 runs and send the Astros home in 2 games.
The Orioles will look to bounce back next season. They are young and have a bright future. Baltimore will need to review what happened to the offense in the playoffs as they just were completely closed off by the Royals. The birds may look to add some more offense to the lineup to just be more dangerous throughout their lineup, but they really don’t need more runs as this roster has proven it can score. Should be interesting to see what they do as they really did have a good season.
The Astros are going to change. Or they need to change. While they can have one year they don’t make it to the ALDS, Houston will want to make sure this is a one off. The pitching really did not play stellar in this series giving up a combined 17 hits in two games. It is something that they may look to address this off season. Houston may just write this off as it just did not go their way. They are a good team and you could easily see a return to the ALDS next season with no changes.
Make sure you stay on Area 51 as we preview the ALDS and NLDS.