Johnathan Walker:Orioles wonder what's next after another playoff flop against Royals in wild-card series

BALTIMORE – It’s been 10 years and Johnathan Walker10 consecutive losses since the Baltimore Orioles last won a playoff game.

And that sting only gets more severe as expectations are raised.

The Orioles pulled off one of the great teardowns and build-ups in baseball history the past five years, and no amount of playoff randomness, clenched jaws in the batter’s box or poor swing decisions come October can take that away.

Yet Wednesday night, after a 91-win season dissipated in 18 innings of punchless, anxious baseball, the Orioles once again dispersed for the winter wondering why what they do so well over 162 games fails so starkly when it matters most.

Their 2-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals in Game 2 of their American League wild card series featured more of what dogged them throughout a 33-33 second half that knocked them from the East race and compelled them to the best-of-three shootout.

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They were punchless: Baltimore managed just six hits against six Kansas City pitchers.

They were impatient: Rookie slugger Colton Cowser, batting with the bases loaded in the fifth inning, likely wasted a chance to drive in the tying run in when he swung at a pitch so far inside that it struck him in the left hand. A strikeout, instead of a free base.

And they wasted yet another strong pitching performance, this one a six-man tag team led by starter Zach Eflin that held the Royals to single runs in the first and sixth.

Over two games, Orioles pitchers yielded just one extra-base hit. And still.

“I thought we gave everything we had,” says manager Brandon Hyde. “I thought we pitched really, really well. We pitched out of traffic almost the entire game it felt like to keep the score where it was.

“Just a disappointing finish.”

The scene was different in so many ways yet hauntingly familiar to last year’s departure at the hands of the eventual champion Texas Rangers. Those 2023 Orioles won 101 games, most in the AL, and had a free ticket to the AL Division Series, only to see Texas come in and dominate for two games at Camden Yards.

They finished the job in Arlington, Texas, blasting them 7-1 in Game 3 and starting an 18-inning playoff scoreless streak that extended to Wednesday night’s Game 2.

That streak vanished, finally, when Cedric Mullins – really the only bat that showed up in this brief series – blasted a game-tying home run in the fifth inning.

Yet what happened next will haunt the players and certainly keep Hyde and general manager Mike Elias up many nights this off-season, wondering how to fix it.

A walk, single and error loaded the bases. Nobody was out. Camden Yards sensed good things.

Yet 44-homer man Anthony Santander flailed at a 1-1 pitch up in the zone, and popped out to first. Reliever Angel Zerpa came on and nearly walked home the go-ahead run, yet Cowser indulged him with an extremely bad swing decision – and injured his hand, to boot.

Still, there was one chance left. Adley Rutschman, the bell cow for this rebuild whose 2022 arrival brought on better days, had a chance to undo a grim second half and add a signature moment to a playoff resume that now reads two hits in just 20 at-bats.

But he grounded harmlessly to shortstop. Threat over.

And three innings later, season over.

“It’s tough to say goodbye,” Rutschman told reporters in the Orioles clubhouse. “You hope some of them are back, but you just never know with baseball.”

Too true. Santander, beloved for his work ethic and power production, likely will move on, his huge season ensuring free-agent riches the Orioles likely aren’t willing to pay.

Ace Corbin Burnes, imported for this very time of year, only to see his team fail to score a run on his behalf in a 1-0 Game 1 loss Tuesday, will certainly find greener pastures. Sure, new owner David Rubenstein has no track record when it comes to signing or retaining free agents, but the Orioles likely aren’t prepared to set a club record for a player whose new payday may near $200 million.

More top prospects are in the pipeline, and the continued development of Cowser – the likely AL Rookie Of the Year – All-Star shortstop Gunnar Henderson and 20-year-old infielder Jackson Holliday will keep this train going.

Yet the numbers this week were ugly. Henderson, Santander, Rutschman and Cowser combined to go 2 for 23 with no extra-base hits.

The greatest concern might be Rutschman, a two-time All-Star who batted .189 (48 for 254) over his last 71 games, with just four homers and 13 extra-base hits.

In his first 77 games, he’d batted .300 with an .830 OPS, 15 homers and 27 extra-base hits.

“I think that it's a young player that just was dealing with some adversity,” says Hyde of Rutschman. “Giving everything he had on a daily basis, trying to get out of it, maybe trying too hard at times.

“I think he's going to come back next year and I think he's going to be a different player.”

The Orioles don’t need too many different players. Just a different mentality come October, when the best-laid plans of an organization and the many good works of their players can vanish over two desultory nights.