BALTIMORE – Speed ​​alone doesn’t get you to superstar status in baseball. The evidence of Bobby Witt Jr.’s speed can be found in his 10.4 WAR season overall – 31 stolen bases, 45 doubles, 11 triples – but that’s not why he’s a 10-win player . He is a 10-win player because he posted a wRC+ of 168 while playing a premier position in elite defense.

“That’s what makes him so unique because he has the power,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said after the game. “He’s got the ability to hit the ball with the bat, but he’s also got the speed with which he gets infield hits, he can do a lot of different things.” He’s literally the total package when it comes to the physical performance on the field goes.”

It was that speed that was the difference in Kansas City’s 2-1 victory over the Orioles on Wednesday night. The second exciting low-scoring game in as many days extended Baltimore’s postseason losing streak to 10 games over 11 years. The Royals, now headed to the Division Series, have won nine of their last 10 postseason series, dating back 40 seasons.

But back to Witt’s legs. For all his other attributes, it’s important to remember that the presumptive AL MVP finalist is incredibly fast. Jordan Westburg certainly won’t forget it anytime soon.

The Orioles second baseman went to center for a diving stop on a Witt grounder with two outs in the top of the sixth and runners on the corners. It was a great stop brought about by the hair on his chin, a full-blown testament to Westburg’s commitment and anticipation of hitting the ball at 108.7 mph.

Westburg’s counterpart, Michael Massey, made a nearly identical play two innings earlier to rob Ryan O’Hearn of a likely RBI single and preserve a 1-0 lead, and at the time I thought Massey’s stop would change the season.

The difference: O’Hearn is a speedy DH with a sprint speed of 64 percent. Witt, one of the fastest players in the league, if not The Fastest, ripped his ass out of the penalty area and beat Westburg’s throw. Not much, but he did it. That attempt, which could have come from any Punch-and-Judy speedster instead of the most dangerous hitter the Royals have had since George Brett, extended the inning and allowed Kyle Isbel to score the go-ahead run from third.

It was Witt’s second game-winning RBI in as many career postseason appearances.

With a 1-0 win for the Royals on Tuesday and a 2-1 win for the Royals on Wednesday, you can assume that both games had a similar outcome. That wasn’t really the case. A man-to-man pitcher duel in Game 1 led to a number of missed opportunities in Game 2. Traffic on the bases was constant. Both starters, Seth Lugo and Zach Eflin, persistently flirted with danger but couldn’t take it home. Neither lasted five innings, although each only allowed a single run.

The Royals and Orioles combined to score three runs, but left 21 men on base and went 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position, with both Royals singles on unmarked groundballs. In fact, the two clubs combined for a 4:23 game with runners in scoring position. All four hits were singles. One of those was Witt’s game-winning infield hit in Game 2; The other three reached a top speed of 90.5 miles per hour. The Orioles’ only hit with runners in scoring position in the Series, a hit by Cedric Mullins in the fifth inning of Game 1, failed to yield even a run.

The Royals, who waited until the sixth inning to score on Tuesday, scored their first batter of the afternoon on Wednesday. Massey opened the game with a double, moved to third on a grounder to right by Witt, who had been engrossed in his Freddie Patek tribute act all afternoon, and then scored on a single by Vinnie Pasquantino Hit.

Eflin and Lugo traded zeroes for the next four innings, but unlike Game 1, when Cole Ragans and Corbin Burnes might as well have thrown to empty the batter’s boxes, openings kept appearing. The Orioles, who scored a single run in 18 innings of a home playoff series, will spend all winter tossing and turning about the ineptitude of their offense — and they should — but they came close, Lugo to reach.

Unlike pitchers who might keep something in reserve early in the game to give a different look on later trips through the order, Lugo threw eight different pitch types to his first nine batters. And it was just enough. The Orioles had baserunners in the first and second innings. They used two players with one out in the fourth, put both in scoring position with two outs and, thanks in part to Massey’s acrobatics, came away with nothing.

Mullins, Baltimore’s only offensive bright spot in Game 1, hit a home run to start the fifth inning and Then The Orioles set out to rally. A single, a walk and a fielding error by Lugo loaded the bases with no one out and brought in 40-homer Anthony Santander, an Orioles lifer who might be playing his last game in black and orange Plate.

The last decade has been pretty tough for Orioles fans. Due to front office ineptitude, followed by ownership neglect disguised as a half-decade-long tank job, the Orioles’ home playoff games were eight years apart. At last year’s ALDS against Texas, where the games took place on a weekend and Baltimore was a heavy favorite, there was unbridled excitement in the crowd.

This time the atmosphere was a little more subdued after the frustration of last October. Because it was a big stadium in a tiny town, there were about 6,000 empty seats at Camden Yards for Game 2 on a weekday afternoon. But beyond that, the joy of being here was gone. The audience wouldn’t settle for another runner-up ribbon.

Instead, they begged for a reason to explode. Lugo, the man with a million pitches, fired a 93-mile-per-hour four-seater straight down the pipe to Mullins, who may not be the 30-homer threat he was a few years ago, but is more powerful enough to be such a meatball to shoot in the seats.

At the same time, decades of catharsis poured out into the stands. As the Orioles loaded the bases and chased Lugo within the next four hitters, it only got louder. That was the moment. Apparently. Baltimore’s star-studded offense threatened to erupt like an unclogged pipe.

The optimism lasted for a few moments. Reliever Angel Zerpa managed to strike out Colton Cowser on a pitch that actually hit the Orioles outfielder, resulting in a season-ending hand injury. Adleyrutschman followed. The star catcher had been in a half-season doldrums and, early in the game, had crushed a ball that would have cleared virtually any wall in the park except the 410-foot mark in deep center field. He expressed it there.

rutschman hit a groundout against Witt to end the inning. No further damage, and a few minutes later the guy who was drafted a pick afterrutschman drove in the final run of the series.

The Orioles got two out baserunners out of the game in both the seventh and eighth innings, but the bases were loaded, no outs they wasted in the fifth inning… well, they’ll have to wait until April for another one that good Chance to see.

The Royals pride themselves on their pitching and defense. “That’s what we preach as Royals,” Witt said. “We play defense, run hard, be aggressive, that’s what we have to do to keep winning.”

And you could argue that this sweep is a triumph for Kansas City’s run prevention. Witt and Massey were excellent defensively, Ragans was electric in his first postseason start. The Royals bullpen had been a liability for most of the year, and aside from Lucas Erceg, I didn’t have much confidence in his entry into the series. In 7 2/3 innings of work over two games, these relievers were outstanding. Flawless, you might say, as they didn’t allow a single run to cross the plate of their clock.

I was impressed by Pasquatino’s toughness, Massey’s persistence and Quatraro’s steady hand at the helm as manager got his first taste of postseason action. We’ve already seen an underdog Royals team develop into a postseason juggernaut over the last decade. Why not two?

“I think it’s the start of something special,” Witt said. “As I keep saying, we didn’t come this far just to get this far, so we’re going to keep working at it and keep trying to create our own legacy.”

As much as the Royals have seized this opportunity with both hands, there is an obvious contrast to their opponents, who have done many things well in this series. Baltimore’s pitching was championship quality. The Orioles made several excellent defensive plays and continued to show strong offense even when they weren’t rewarded.

But for the second time in as many years this team, the product of a frustrating five-year preparation, was eliminated in the first round by strong underdogs after losing 2-0 at home. They don’t need anyone to remind them to be disappointed. Their two franchise players,rutschman and Gunnar Henderson, will both forever be linked to Witt for one reason or another. And although both kept their heads on the field, their frustration was visible in the press box after each unproductive outing.

The tank has given the Orioles an insanely talented core that has been sidelined so far in October. Now Burnes, Santander and John Means will be free agents this offseason. Mullins can walk in a year. Is it rude to point out thatrutschman, who unlike Witt wasn’t signed until the Rapture, is just three seasons away from his walk date?

We’ll see in the upcoming series how much of the Royals’ magic is permanent. Her story is at most half written. But the Orioles close out 2024 at a moment of great significance. They’re not cute anymore. They’re no longer the young upstart with more baby-faced, blonde-haired All-Stars than they have in the lineup. This is a club that is quickly approaching the moment when it is necessary to keep its mouth shut.

The fans are begging for a reason to cheer. How long do you have to keep them waiting?