MLB playoffs 2024: Corbin Burnes dominates, Royals win anyway as Orioles waste massive opportunity in Game 1

BALTIMORE — A misty, gray haze blanketed the Charm City on Tuesday morning. The steady rain, at first, felt like a good omen for the Orioles. That a team so wholly obsessed with water and its various states of flow woke up to a downpour on the day of its first postseason game this year seemed appropriate.

Over the past 18 months, water-related gambits and gimmicks have become an omnipresent part of the Orioles experience. Players mime faucets upon hitting a single, squirt water out of their mouths whenever a teammate knocks a double. A repurposed beer funnel dubbed “the hydration station” sits at the end of the dugout. Upon an O’s home run, players fill the contraption with water and celebratorily slurp it down. In left-center-field, a section of seats deemed “The Birdbath” is doused with a waterhose by a floatie-and-goggle-wearing character named Mr. Splash whenever the team tallies an extra-base hit.

Perhaps it was a foreboding omen that the drizzle subsided an hour or so before first pitch.

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On a day when ace Corbin Burnes delivered the playoff performance of a lifetime, allowing just one run over eight masterful innings, Baltimore’s offense ran bone-dry. Kansas City starter Cole Ragans baffled the Birds for six innings with a barrage of well-located heaters before exiting prematurely due to a calf issue. His bullpen finished the job, tossing a trio of scoreless frames and ensuring that the Orioles did not touch home.

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

“As [Royals veteran outfielder] Tommy Pham says, whenever you allow the other team zero runs, you have a 99.999999 percent chance to win the ballgame,” Witt joked after his team’s 1-0 victory.

His rising 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. Time and time again, he carried the Royals to victory. In many other seasons, his 32 home runs, 31 steals and .332 batting average with superb shortstop defense would earn him an MVP award. And his immense talent is matched only by his unfettered joy for the game, his rare, childlike energy.

Last week, during the Royals’ Champagne celebration after clinching a wild card, Witt told MLB.com that he was most excited to get the October-related T-shirts he saw on TV so often as a kid. On Tuesday, in the first postseason game of his young career, the power-speed dynamo rose to the moment.

The Orioles’ bats most certainly did not, wasting one of the most brilliant playoff starts in recent memory.

Burnes, who was removed after allowing a leadoff single in the ninth, became the first starter since Stephen Strasburg in Game 6 of the 2019 World Series to throw a pitch in the ninth inning of a playoff game. In the past 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 5 of the 2015 World Series — ended up losing the ballgame.

The same fate befell Burnes, whom the Orioles acquired from Milwaukee over the winter for a pair of highly touted prospects. The deal represented the first truly aggressive maneuver by Orioles general manager Mike Elias and his front office since the team’s competitive window opened in 2023. Parting with controllable, young talent to add a pending free agent in Burnes indicated to the baseball world that the Orioles were going for it. They were seizing the opportunity, taking advantage of their dynamic, young offensive core.

That core was nowhere to be found Tuesday. Baltimore’s top five hitters — Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Anthony Santander, Ryan Mountcastle and Adley Rutschman — went 1-for-18 against Royals pitching. Ragans was outstanding, but the Orioles helped him along, wasting two golden opportunities in the early innings. Twice, catcher and nine-hole hitter James McCann struck out in an enormous spot — first in the third, with a runner on second and nobody out, and then in the fifth, with runners on the corners and one down. That was as close as Baltimore would get.

As the zeros mounted, a dark cloud of déjà vu inched over Camden Yards. Last year, an 101-win AL East champion Orioles team paraded into the postseason with massive expectations. In two ALDS home games against the Texas Rangers, the Birds faltered. They were swept by the eventual champions, blinded in the limelight, swallowed by the moment.

Ahead of this autumn’s tournament, the Birds reframed their late-season swoon as a positive, arguing that their brush with adversity would propel them when the October pressure cooker began. They’d seen the bottom and fought back. Now, they could handle the intensity.

That’s the opposite of what happened Tuesday. Once again, Baltimore’s offense wilted on the big stage.

It was even more frustrating considering how well Burnes pitched.

After speaking postgame with members of the media, Baltimore’s ace sat silent in a chair in front of his locker. Still wearing his black, short-sleeve undershirt and game pants, Burnes scrolled aimlessly on the phone resting in his right hand, the same dominant hand that dominated just hours before.

Other Orioles, wandering past their ace, took a second to recognize his masterpiece. They patted Burnes on the back, gave him a fist bump or stammered some version of “great job today.” Burnes, the disappointment wafting over him, either nodded in acknowledgement or mumbled back a response. The gesture from Burnes’ teammates was part congratulations, part apology. A “thank you” and a “sorry.”

And, if the Orioles lose Wednesday, a farewell.

Burnes is a free agent whenever Baltimore’s season draws to a close. He will command a contract north of $200 million. The Orioles — analytically driven, historically thrifty — do not appear likely to retain their ace. Next season, Burnes is expected to pitch in different colors. Unless the Birds can conjure a turnaround, his tenure in Charm City will be remembered as an enormous missed opportunity.

For six months and one wet day in October, Burnes has held up his end of the bargain.

The same cannot be said for Baltimore’s lineup.