Theoretically, the Kansas City Royals should not a hateable team. They’re not a big-payroll behemoth like most of the AL East. They haven’t won 27 championships like you know who. People in Kansas City are generally pretty nice about their sports teams, and the BBQ is good.
But that doesn’t matter, because the Royals always make me see flames. This, you’ll remember, is the team that bounced the Orioles from the playoffs twice out of their last four trips. Last year—sorry, I’ll make this quick—these two met in the AL Wild Card, KC considered the underdog, and the Orioles got swept, as Baltimore only scored one run in 18 innings against a KC starter tandem of Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo and a shutdown bullpen that let in nothing.