It is hard to believe now, but just four years ago the Royals and Orioles were battling each other for supremacy in the American League. The Orioles had the better record, winning 96 games and the Eastern Division that year, but it was the Royals who made it a clean sweep in the American League Championship Series, capturing their first pennant in 29 years.
The Royals won a championship a year later, and the Orioles were back in the playoffs in 2016, but by 2017 the paint was starting to fade for both franchises. This year, the bottom has dropped out.