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Baltimore Orioles fans have endured a tough postseason journey for quite some time.
The team suffered a sweep in their opening postseason series for the second consecutive year, losing 2-1 in Game 2 of the American League Wild Card series to the Kansas City Royals.
This marks the fourth consecutive playoff series and the 10th straight playoff game that the franchise has lost since 2014, when they swept the Detroit Tigers in the divisional round but were ultimately swept themselves by the Royals in the championship series.
From 2017-2021, Baltimore endured five consecutive losing seasons and failed to reach the playoffs in 2022 after winning more than 80 games for the first time since 2016 — the last time they made the postseason before 2023.
In 2022, despite winning the American League East division for the first time since 2014, Baltimore was swept by the eventual World Series champions, the Texas Rangers. This extended the franchise’s championship drought to 41 years, the sixth-longest in league history (excluding the 1983 World Series champions).
The seasons of 2023 and 2024 saw the team win 90+ games in consecutive years for the first time since 1982-83 and make back-to-back postseason appearances for the first time since 1996-97.
However, during the wild-card series, Baltimore’s starting lineup struggled, managing only one run.
The team’s standout batter this season, Gunnar Henderson, had a .281 average in the regular season but failed to register a hit in two games against Kansas City.
Similarly, Ryan O’Hearn batted .289 in the regular season last year but could only muster a .200 average in three games against Texas.
In contrast to 2023, Baltimore’s pitchers performed well this year, only allowing three runs to Kansas City compared to 21 runs against Texas.
Despite years of high draft picks and impactful trades for players like pitcher Corbin Burnes this season, Baltimore once again faces the challenge of overcoming its playoff struggles.
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