Time to regroup: O's head to Kansas City looking to change momentum in ALCS

The Oakland A's couldn't do it. Neither could the Los Angeles Angels. And you can now add the Orioles to the list.

Those three teams are a combined 0-6 against Kansas City this postseason. The Royals are 4-0 in games decided by two runs or less and 4-0 in extra innings.

During the regular season, they went 22-25 in one-run games and 5-7 in extra-inning games. So, yeah, the Royals are hot. Those three teams are still looking for one win against them.

The Royals were tied with the Orioles after nine innings Friday night and after eight last night. They then outscored the Orioles 5-1 from the ninth inning on to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the American League Championship Series.

Now the Orioles won't panic, but they better starting winning soon. Like Game 3 on Monday night.

"We can't look past Game 3," catcher Caleb Joseph said. "They are a good team and we have to try and continue to play our game. We've got guys that have been doing it the entire season. What got us here was solid pitching, clutch hitting and good defense. We will continue to lean on that."

Darren O'Day, who has taken the loss in each of the first two games, said the O's are confident they'll still take this series.

"We're a good baseball team. We've won a lot games. Just have to take it one at a time and win the next one," he said.

O's starters Chris Tillman and Bud Norris each went just 4 1/3 innings and they've combined to allow nine runs to the Royals. But Norris said Wei-Yin Chen can do better in the next game.

"Chen has been great for us all year. He knows how to pitch. His first one wasn't the way he wanted it to go, so he's excited to get back out there. We expect a good one out of him," Norris said.

In the battle of the bullpens, Royals relievers have pitched to an ERA of 2.16 in this series while the O's bullpen has an ERA of 4.36.

Kansas City has now won nine straight postseason games dating to the 1985 World Series.

Kansas City became the first team since Tampa Bay on June 28-29 to beat the Orioles two straight games at Camden Yards.

The pesky Royals hitters were not retired in order in this series until the eighth inning yesterday. In going 6-0 this postseason, K.C. has scored 38 runs and hit eight homers.

Kansas City is making all the plays on defense, getting the clutch hits on offense and getting the big outs from its bullpen.

As well as they are playing, the Orioles were right there in the late innings to win either game, but they didn't.

Not scoring with the bases loaded in the last of the seventh yesterday in a 4-4 tie was big. The middle of the O's order could not put Baltimore ahead and the Orioles have not had one lead in this series.

So now they regroup and pick it up in Kansas City with a workout today and Game 3 on Monday night.

Maybe it's a good time for a day off. The O's have to figure out some way to take momentum away from this red-hot Royals ballclub, which is playing with tremendous confidence right now.

The outlook for the O's in this series is now a bit gloomy. But the Royals still need two more wins. The O's are not done yet.

Do they get this series turned around at Kauffman Stadium?