KANSAS CITY, Mo. – One year after ending their 29-year postseason drought and stunning the baseball world by steamrolling the Los Angeles Angels and Baltimore Orioles en route to a World Series berth, the Kansas City Royals find themselves in a strange new position: By the standards of the American League teams still playing in 2015, they're established and experienced in October baseball.
The Toronto Blue Jays will play their first postseason game since 1993 on Thursday when they host the Texas Rangers, who last advanced past the wild-card game in 2011. And here at Kauffman Stadium, the Royals will welcome the upstart Houston Astros, a young club enjoying the seemingly early culmination of a rebuilding process that saw it lose an astounding 416 games from 2011 to 2014.
There are significant distinctions in the teams' organizational reputations and certain aspects of their styles of play: The Astros, known for their reliance on analytics, both strike out and homer very frequently, while the Royals, known for their scouting, do not. But the parallels between the 2015 Astros and the 2014 Royals proved impossible to ignore after Kansas City's workout Wednesday afternoon.
"There are a lot of similarities," Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer said. "The way those young guys have turned the organization around — they're a lot of fun to watch, a lot of energy. A lot of young guys playing passionate baseball, a real athletic team. There are a lot of similarities in their team and our team, and it should make for a good matchup."
"We have team speed; they have team speed," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. "They're known for their defense. I think our defense has been underrated. The balance, they have a lot of balance on their team, and so do we up and down the lineup.
"Homegrown talent's a part of both. Some trades are a part of both. Both teams seizing the moment a little bit at the deadline, trying to improve the team. I think both teams sense the opportunity might be there to make a run in October."
Beyond the similarities in youth and athleticism, or perhaps because of them, the teams share common aesthetics: Both the Astros and Royals play an aggressive breed of baseball, and both dare to enjoy themselves on the field in a sport that often seems stodgy elsewhere.
"I think both teams have a lot of fun," said Collin McHugh, the Astros' Game 1 starter. "You can tell they have a lot of fun in the clubhouse. They've got a lot of fun on the field. It translates into an exciting game that they play. Exciting brand of baseball. I think that's probably the closest similarity I can see with our team. We're exciting, too. We've got a lot of players that are fun to watch on a daily basis."
McHugh's Astros, of course, stand to have a lot more fun if they can capitalize on their win in the wild-card game the way their opponents did last season. The Royals played well enough in the regular season to secure home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and to avoid having their October fate determined by a single game — a scenario that will force the Astros to hold their best starter, Dallas Keuchel, until Game 3 of the AL Division Series after he threw six scoreless innings against the New York Yankees.
But the Kansas City club recognizes that entering the playoffs fresh off the thrill of a wild-card win comes with its own advantages.
"Whoever wins that wild-card game has a lot of momentum coming into the division series, so it's going to make for a tough matchup," Hosmer said.
Last year's winners speak to that point: Both the Royals and the eventual world champion San Francisco Giants cruised past opponents with far better regular-season records and reached the World Series after winning their respective elimination games.
But diving slightly deeper into the short history of MLB's postseason format shows wild-card winners are a collective 3-3 in division series.
The victory secures equal footing for the remainder of the postseason, but momentum in baseball remains, to paraphrase Earl Weaver, as good as the next day's starting pitcher.
Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas summed it up nicely: "They're coming off a big win (Monday), and we know the momentum that they have. But we're a pretty good ballclub over here, too."
"To me, experience means nothing," Royals catcher Salvador Perez said. "It's still the game, no matter how young you are, no matter how old you are. You come to the field, play hard and see what happens."
