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Royals, Orioles kick off ALCS at Camden Yards

Oct 10, 2014 - 1:33 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Kansas City Royals are back in the American League Championship Series for the first time in 29 years. They will continue their quest toward their first World Series appearance since 1985 when they start the best-of-seven series against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards on Friday.

While it's been a generation since the Royals have been back to the Fall Classic, it's been an even longer wait for the Orioles, who were last in the ALCS back in 1997, but haven't made a trip to the World Series since winning it all back in 1983.

"I look at it as two fan bases starving for a winner," Orioles outfielder Adam Jones said. "Our fan base, it's been 31 years. Theirs, it's been since 1985, so that's 29 years. There's some adults that haven't seen winners in their lifetime. I think both teams want to see a winner."

Kansas City's improbable run almost ended in the wild card game against the Oakland Athletics, but the never-say-die Royals rallied to send that game into extra innings, before coming from behind once again to win the game in 12 innings.

Ned Yost's crew carried that momentum into the ALDS where the Royals upended the AL's best team, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, in three straight games. They needed more than nine innings to win the first two in Anaheim, before routing the Halos, 8-3, in Game 3 to advance in front of a wild Kauffman Stadium crowd.

"I'm more happy for the fans than anyone else, because they waited a long time to get to this point," owner David Glass said, drenched in champagne in the clubhouse celebration. "But listen, we're not at the end. We're at the beginning of something that could be really good."

No team signified small ball more than Kansas City, which won 89 games this season thanks in large part to its ability to play defense and manufacture runs. The Royals also led the AL with 153 stolen bases, but their 95 home runs were the fewest in baseball.

Kansas City, though, has enjoyed the luxury of the home run here in the postseason and won the first two games in Anaheim on the strength of two extra-inning homers. The Royals have hit just as many this postseason (4) as the Orioles, a team that blasted 116 more than them during the regular season.

"Well, you know, it was huge. Won us two games," Yost said of the power hitting after Sunday's clincher. "Coming into this game, we were hitting .162 as a team, they were hitting .141, but the difference were the two big home runs. That gave us the edge. Tonight the power was huge again."

If there is one perceived weakness within the Royals it could be their starting pitching. James Shields is the ace and will get the call in Game 1 against the O's.

Shields has yet to live up to his "Big Game James" moniker in the postseason, going 3-4 with a 4.96 ERA in eight starts. He's also lost both of his ALCS starts while with the Tampa Bay Rays.

The right-hander, though, picked up the win in his team's clincher over the Angels, surrendering a pair of runs and six hits in six innings. He is 11-7 lifetime versus the O's with a 3.52 ERA in 26 starts.

"He's that guy who's going to set the tone for the series," said reliever Wade Davis. "He goes out and does his thing, the next guy's going to follow suit, and it's worked like that since the day I got called up."

Baltimore, meanwhile, beat the AL's last three Cy Young Award winners to sweep its way past the Detroit Tigers. While the Tigers' three aces weren't exactly lights out, the Orioles were able to batter the beleaguered Tigers' bullpen to the tune of 10 earned runs in just 4 2/3 innings.

"They've got a lot to be proud of," said Orioles manager Buck Showalter, who won his first postseason series. "It's a step. There's different steps during the season that you have to take and this is one of them. It's so hard against a team like Detroit that has a great pedigree and experience at (the postseason)."

Baltimore slugged its way to the postseason for the second time in three years thanks to its first AL East crown since 1997 after going 96-66. The win total was the most for an O's team since they accumulated 98 in the year of their last division title.

The O's had to overcome a pair of serious injuries along the way, as catcher Matt Wieters was lost for the season in June with an elbow injury, while promising third baseman Manny Machado again suffered a serious leg injury that required surgery in August.

Then as if that wasn't enough last year's home run champion Chris Davis was suspended for the use of amphetamines in September. Davis is eligible to return for Game 6 of this series, but will probably be left off the roster.

Regardless, it didn't slow the Orioles down from an offensive standpoint, as they hit a league high 211 dingers, with Nelson Cruz leading the way with an MLB-best 40.

Cruz continued to mash against the Tigers, going 6-for-12 with a pair of home runs and five RBI. Eight of Cruz's 16 postseason home runs have come against Detroit.

"He's been awesome all year," said Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis. "That's the main reason we got him. I played a lot of games against him and he's done a lot of damage against us. I'm just glad he's on our team doing the damage now."

Baltimore's rotation almost mirrors Kansas City with its lack of star power, but the group did have three 13-game winners (Wei-Yin Chen, Bud Norris and Chris Tillman) for the first time since '97, when Scott Erickson, Jimmy Key and Mike Mussina helped pitch the O's to a division title.

Tillman gets the call on Friday after beating the Tigers in Game 1 of the ALDS. He surrendered two runs and four hits in five innings of that one.

Tillman was as good as any pitcher down the stretch, going 6-1 in the second half with a 2.33 ERA in 14 starts. Overall he was 13-6 with a 3.34 ERA.

"Chris is not a look-at-me guy," said Showalter. "He wants to blend in. We've got a lot of those guys. And he'd be the first to tell you, when you're talking about Shields and you're talking about (Justin) Verlander and (Max) Scherzer and (David) Price, Chris will say, 'I haven't earned that, I haven't done it consistently over a long period of time.'"

In five starts against the Royals he is 2-2 with a 6.21 ERA.

The Royals won four of seven from the Orioles during the regular season, outscoring Baltimore 26-18.