Sunday afternoon could see two teams complete sweeps in their sides of the American League Division Series as both the Kansas City Royals and the Baltimore Orioles enter play with 2-0 leads in their best-of-five series. Baltimore will travel to the Detroit Tigers to begin Game 3 at 3:30 p.m. EDT, and Kansas City will host the Los Angeles Angels at 7:30 p..m. Both games will air on TBS.
Orioles at Tigers
Baltimore has had the most powerful offense, scoring 19 runs and hitting .309 in their first two games against Detroit. They have especially enjoyed the eighth inning. They scored eight times in the eighth inning of Game 1 and four more in Game 2’s eighth frame. Delmon Young, Nelson Cruz, and Nick Markakis have three RBI each. All of Young’s have come on one hit, an eighth-inning three-run double to put his team ahead 7-6 in Game 2. Cruz is 4 for 8 in the series, and Jonathan Schoop is 3 for 7.
Detroit has scored runs — nine total — but their bullpen has cost them dearly. Their bullpen ERA is 24.55, allowing 11 runs (10 earned) in 16 innings. Joba Chamberlain has allowed five runs (four earned) in 1/3 of an inning for an ERA of 108.00.
Baltimore won Game 1 by a score of 12-3 and Game 2 7-6. They will have Bud Norris (15-8) on the mound to try to close out the series. Detroit will counter with David Price (15-12), their big mid-season pickup they acquired for just this reason.
Angels at Royals
The 7:30 game features the Wild Card Royals, who have won three straight postseason games — all in extra innings. They defeated the Oakland Athletics 9-8 in 12 innings after trailing 7-3 in the eighth. Three runs in the eighth, one in the ninth, and two in the 12th (after falling behind 8-7) sent them into the ALDS. Two 11-inning wins over Los Angeles (3-2 and 4-1) put them on the brink of a sweep.
The Royals have hit only .229 in their three games, but they have scored their runs in the most-clutch situations, including Mike Moustakas‘s 11th-inning solo shot in Game 1 and Eric Hosmer‘s two-run blast in the 11th inning of Game 2. Their pitching has held up very well with a 2.91 ERA in three games. Their bullpen has pitched exceptionally well, allowing only four runs in 16 innings.
Obviously, two low-scoring extra-inning games means that the Angels’ pitchers have also performed well. The difference is found the starters and the relievers. Matt Shoemaker and Jered Weaver have combined for two runs allowed in 13 innings; Shoemaker was scoreless for six innings in Game 1. The bullpen, although not bad on paper, has given up four runs (three earned) in nine innings, but those have mostly come at the worst time, in extra innings.
Los Angeles will send C.J. Wilson (13-10) to the mound to fight for their playoff lives while Royals ace James Shields (14-8) will take the ball for Kansas City . Shields pitched against the Athletics in the Wild Card game. He allowed four earned runs in five innings and took a no-decision as his offense came back. With a win, the Royals will advance to their first ALCS since 1985. They will take any win they can get, but we can assume that they would prefer to win it in nine innings.