2024 MLB Playoffs: Corbin Burnes dominates, Royals still win, while Orioles miss huge opportunity in Game 1

BALTIMORE — A foggy, gray haze blanketed the Charm City Tuesday morning. The steady rain initially seemed to be a good omen for the Orioles. That a team so completely obsessed with water and its various currents would wake up to a cloudburst on the day of its first postseason game seemed fitting.

Over the past 18 months, water features and gimmicks have become a ubiquitous part of the Orioles experience. Players mimic the knock when they hit a single and squirt water from their mouths when a teammate hits a double. At the end of the dugout is a repurposed beer funnel called a “drinking station.” When an O hits a home run, players fill the device with water and sip it ceremoniously. In left center field, a section of seats called “The Birdbath” is doused with a hose by a flotation device and goggle-wearing character named Mr. Splash whenever the team scores an extra-base hit.

Perhaps it was an ominous omen that the drizzle subsided about an hour before the first pitch.

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On a day when star Corbin Burnes delivered the playoff performance of his life, allowing just one run in eight masterful innings, Baltimore’s offense was bone dry. Kansas City starter Cole Ragans stunned the Birds for six innings with a barrage of well-placed heaters before exiting early with a calf problem. His bullpen finished the job, throwing three scoreless frames and keeping the Orioles from finishing.

The Royals scored only once, on a two-out RBI single from their supernova shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. Third baseman Maikel Garcia, whose stolen base proved crucial early in the inning, scampered home to bring Kansas home City in the lead. That was enough.

“As (Royals veteran outfielder) Tommy Pham says, whenever you allow zero runs to the other team, you have a 99.999999 percent chance of winning the game,” Witt joked after his team’s 1-0 win .

His rise to the moment should come as no surprise. The 24-year-old shortstop spent the entire regular season establishing himself as one of the game’s best players. He repeatedly led the Royals to victory. In many other seasons, his 32 home runs, 31 steals and .332 batting average with excellent shortstop defense would earn him an MVP award. And his immense talent is only surpassed by his unbridled joy in the game and his rare, childlike energy.

Last week, during the Royals’ champagne celebration after winning a wild card, Witt told MLB.com that he was most looking forward to the October T-shirts he saw so many times on TV as a kid. On Tuesday, in the first postseason game of his young career, the power and speed dynamo got going.

The Orioles’ bats certainly didn’t, missing out on one of the brightest playoff starts in recent memory.

Burnes, who was eliminated after allowing a leadoff single in the ninth inning, became the first starter to throw a pitch in the ninth inning of a playoff game since Steven Strasburg in Game 6 of the 2019 World Series. In the last decade of postseason baseball, only seven other starting pitchers have worked that deep. Only one – Matt Harvey against the same Kansas City Royals in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series – ended up losing the ballgame.

The same fate befell Burnes, whom the Orioles acquired from Milwaukee in the winter for two highly touted prospects. The deal represented the first truly aggressive maneuver by Orioles GM Mike Elias and his front office since the team’s competitive window opened in 2023. The parting of controllable, young talent and the addition of an impending free agent in Burnes showed the baseball world that the Orioles would go for it. They took advantage of the opportunity and utilized their dynamic, young offensive core.

That core was nowhere to be found on Tuesday. Baltimore’s top five hitters – Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Anthony Santander, Ryan Mountcastle and Adleyrutschman – went 1:18 against the Royals’ pitchers. Ragans was outstanding, but the Orioles bailed him out, missing two golden opportunities in the first innings. Twice, catcher and nine-hole hitter James McCann struck out in a huge spot – first in the third, with a runner on second and no one out, and then in the fifth, with runners on the corners and one offside. This was as close as Baltimore could get.

As the zeros rose higher and higher, a dark cloud of déjà vu spread over Camden Yards. Last year, the Orioles team, AL East champions with 101 wins, entered the postseason with high expectations. The Birds faltered in two ALDS home games against the Texas Rangers. They were swept away by the eventual champions, blinded by the spotlight and swallowed up by the moment.

Ahead of this fall’s tournament, the Birds viewed their late-season swoon as a positive, arguing that their exposure to adversity would propel them when the pressure cooker began in October. They had recognized the low point and fought back. Now they could handle the intensity.

This is the opposite of what happened on Tuesday. Once again, Baltimore’s offense faltered on the big stage.

It was even more frustrating considering how good Burnes was.

After speaking to members of the media after the game, Baltimore’s star sat silently in a chair in front of his locker. Still wearing his black short-sleeved undershirt and game pants, Burnes scrolled aimlessly on the phone resting in his right hand, the same dominant hand that had dominated just hours before.

Other Orioles who passed by their ace took a moment to recognize his masterpiece. They patted Burnes on the shoulder, gave him a fist bump, or stammered some version of “Great job today.” Burnes, filled with disappointment, either nodded approvingly or murmured a thank you back. Part congratulations, part apology. A “thank you” and an apology.

And if the Orioles lose tomorrow, goodbye.

Burnes will be a free agent when Baltimore’s season ends. He will receive a contract worth $200 million. The Orioles – analytically driven, historically frugal – don’t seem to be keeping their ace. Burnes is expected to play in different colors next season. Unless the Birds can turn things around, his tenure in Charm City will be remembered as a tremendous missed opportunity.

For six months and one wet day in October, Burnes kept his bargain.

The same cannot be said about Baltimore’s lineup.