There was a brief moment, back in the 2010s, when the Orioles and the Royals were bitter rivals. Two small-market teams locked in boom-and-bust cycles, these two teams peaked at the same time, meeting in the 2014 ALCS, which ended in heartbreak for Baltimore.
Now the two are, let’s say, out of sync. The Orioles, you may have heard, won 101 games last season and have had the No. 1 farm system three years running. The Royals lost 106 games last year, have been AL Central bottom-feeders for three out of the last six seasons, and finished fourth the other three, saved only by several lean years for the Detroit Tigers.