AL Wild Card Game One: Kansas City Royals at Baltimore Orioles

The boys are playing some postseason ball!

Kansas City Royals fans, welcome back to the MLB Postseason! It’s been nearly a decade since this franchise has participated in the October tournament leading up to the World Series. In that last appearance, nine years ago, Salvador Perez and company hoisted the Commissioner’s Trophy. The captain will look to do the same once again with an entirely new team around him. To start off this pursuit, the Royals will head to Baltimore for a rematch of the 2014 ALCS against the Orioles.

Two of the best starting pitchers in the league will square off today, with Cole Ragans for Kansas City pitching against Baltimore’s Corbin Burnes. Ragans last started a week ago while Burnes will be working on a standard four days of rest. Ragans has blown past his career high in innings, but if he’s feeling fatigued that is not borne out in the results as he posted a 1.08 ERA in four September starts and completed the sixth inning in each one. Burnes, meanwhile, has seen his strikeout rate decline for the fifth consecutive year but has kept racking up outs anyway. He also finished the regular season on a strong note, producing a 1.20 ERA in five September starts en route to winning AL Pitcher of the Month honors.

Kansas City’s offense has been in a deep slump for the last month but is getting a huge boost for this series as Vinnie Pasquantino returns to the lineup way ahead of schedule. Baltimore’s pitching has been shaky of late, particularly in the bullpen, so something has to give here.

Anything can happen in a best-of-three series. Let’s play ball.

First pitch: 3:08 pm CDT

Royals lineup

Orioles lineup