Baltimore Orioles Move Up Undesirable List in Baseball History After Latest Playoff Flop

The Baltimore Orioles were eliminated by the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday, continuing a string of frustrating postseason defeats.

Baltimore Orioles pitcher Yennier Cano (78) throws a pitch against the Kansas City Royals in game two of the Wild Card round for the 2024 MLB Playoffs at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Oct 2. / Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

The Baltimore Orioles were eliminated from the American League playoffs on Wednesday after being swept by the Kansas City Royals.

It's the second consecutive year that Baltimore has been beaten in their first playoff series. They were beaten in the ALDS in 2023 by the Texas Rangers.

While most of the concern entering the playoffs was on the O's pitching (Kyle Bradish, John Means, Felix Bautista and Grayson Rodriguez were all injured), it was the Orioles offense that failed to show up in this series. They were beaten 1-0 and 2-1 in the two games, failing to generate baserunners and/or get the big hit.

With the loss, Baltimore has now dropped 10 consecutive playoff games, which moves them up an unfortunate group in baseball history.

Per @StatsCentre, only the 2004-2020 Minnesota Twins (18), the 1986-1995 Orioles (13), the 1915-1976 Phillies (11), the 1958-1991 (10) Braves and 1980-1985 Royals (10) have lost 10 consecutive playoff games or more.

Underway in Gm2 of their ALCW series vs the Royals (and already down 1-0 in the 1st inning), the #Orioles are flirting with a 2nd consecutive #Postseason flop as they already have lost 9 consecutive such games as a franchise. That puts them 1 away from tying for 4th on this list pic.twitter.com/s1YioDIHvz

— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) October 2, 2024

And the offseason questions will be tough for Baltimore to answer as well. Slugger Anthony Santander is a free agent and could leave while ace pitcher Corbin Burnes is also headed to the open market. Both players could be looking for deals north of $150-200 million and it remains to be seen if the Orioles will be in the market for either one of them.

The Orioles do have the benefit of an outstanding young core though that should keep them in contention regardless. Jackson Holliday, Colton Cowser, Gunner Henderson and Jordan Westburg are all excellent players on pre-arbitration deals.

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