The Baltimore Orioles and Kansas Royals are playing ALCS Game 1 on Friday night and the matchup is on the TBS channel and the game time is at 8 pm ET for first pitch as the O's take on KC at Camden Yards for the American League Championship Series and it will be James Shields against Chris Tillman in the MLB playoffs pitching matchup.
The Orioles and Royals each come into the series after sweeping the ALDS and now they will matchup to see who represents the AL in the World Series. The AL has teams that have not been to the series in years, while the NL has the two teams that have represented the league in each of the last five seasons. The Orioles have been developing into this for a few years, while the Royals have slowly been building up their team and now they look poised to make some noise in the playoffs.
The Royals play loose and they wreak havoc on the base paths and that's one reason why they were able to take down the Angels. The team knocked off the best team in baseball by wins this season and now they will matchup with the AL East champions. The Royals snapped a 29 year drought by making the playoffs and now they have the chance to get to the World Series. The Royals have been running all over the base paths this postseason and now they matchup against the Orioles and that could be their secret or not so secret weapon.
The Royals used stolen bases to come back against the Athletics in the wild card game and they did the same against the Angels. The team led the league in stolen bases this season and now the Orioles will try and counter with their slugging. The team has Nelson Cruz and Adam Jones and other players that can hit the deep ball and that could be the main battle in this series, power against speed. Shields is pitching the first game for the Royals after starting the wild card game and he is the ace of the team and now the trade of him and Wade Davis from the Rays is looking like the catalyst for all this to happen for the Royals.
Eric Hosmer, Billy Butler and other young players have been performing and the bullpen has been fantastic for the Royals as well. The Orioles made a great comeback against the Tigers and all the moves that Buck Showalter has made have seemingly worked. Both him and Ned Yost will be under the microscope and every decision will be magnified now that four teams are left. The Orioles did not add Chris Davis to the roster for this series, meaning that he would not be active until the World Series if the Orioles make it.
Check here for the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas Royals schedule.
