BALTIMORE — Zach Eflin began his season pitching in front of sparse crowds in St. Petersburg, Fla., for the Tampa Bay Rays.
The setting will be far more intense when he tries to continue his campaign, and that of the Orioles, who traded for the right-hander in July.
Eflin will take the mound on Wednesday at a raucous Camden Yards as Baltimore aims to stave off elimination against the Kansas City Royals in Game 2 of the teams’ American League wild-card series.
“It’s a really special place here in October,” Eflin said of the Orioles’ home ballpark, “so we are looking forward to continuing that.”
A decisive Game 3 would be in Baltimore on Thursday, but only if the Orioles first quash their current stretch of playoff futility.
Baltimore has lost its past nine postseason games, a skid that includes a 1-0 defeat on Tuesday in Game 1.
A loss on Wednesday would spell another sudden October exit for the Orioles. Baltimore secured the AL’s top seed last year before being swept 3-0 by the eventual World Series champion Texas Rangers in the division series.
“Everybody understands the position we’re in,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “I don’t think it’s a team-meeting rally cry.”
Hyde will turn to a postseason veteran in Eflin, who has appeared in 11 playoff games (one start) over the past two seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies (2022) and the Rays (2023).
Eflin is 0-1 with a 5.17 ERA over 15 2/3 postseason innings during that span, but the ninth-year man is not intimidated by the pressure-packed nature of October baseball.
“At the end of the day, you treat it like any other game,” Eflin said. “Obviously knowing the circumstances behind the game, but you’ve got to be free and easy and play this game like that.”
Eflin (10-9, 3.59 ERA in the regular season) will face a Kansas City squad that is one win away from a date with the top-seeded New York Yankees in the AL Division Series. The Royals would host their first playoff game since their 2015 World Series run should they dispatch Baltimore.
“(It) gives me the chills kind of thinking about it,” Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. said. “Hearing the crowd (in Baltimore), I can’t imagine it (in Kansas City).
“Definitely it’s a goal, a hundred percent. … That’s what we went into the last offseason about, that we wanted to bring October baseball back to Kansas City.”
Witt, who was 15 years old when the Royals last hosted a playoff game, delivered Kansas City’s biggest hit in his playoff debut on Tuesday, driving in the game’s lone run with a two-out single in the sixth inning.
Like Eflin, the 24-year-old Witt doesn’t fear the critical moments that the postseason presents.
“It’s just one of those things where it’s the same game you’ve always played,” Witt said. “The pitcher is 60 feet, 6 inches away. First base is 90 feet away. Second base is another 90 feet away.”
Witt will patrol the infield on Wednesday behind right-hander Seth Lugo, who pitched two scoreless innings over three relief appearances for the New York Mets during a 2022 National League wild-card series.
Lugo, in his ninth big-league season, has thrived in his first year with the Royals. The 34-year-old went 16-9 with a 3.00 ERA during the regular season, setting career highs in wins, starts (33) and innings (206 2/3) while earning his first career All-Star Game selection.
He is 0-1 with a 3.86 ERA in three career appearances (one start) against Baltimore.
In four career starts against Kansas City, Eflin is 3-1 with a 5.09 ERA.
–Tanner Malinowski, Field Level Media
