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Former rivals meet for the first time in the postseason since 1980 when the Kansas City Royals take on the New York Yankees in an American League Division Series starting in the Bronx on Saturday night at 6:38 PM ET.
Kansas City and New York played each other in the postseason four times in five seasons between 1976 and 1980, with the Yankees taking three of those series. Now, after the Royals swept the higher-seeded Baltimore Orioles in two games at Camden Yards, they are set to face reigning American League Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole.
Read all about both teams coming into this series, as well our Game 1 picks, below:
The Royals are making their first postseason appearance since winning the World Series in 2015. The team didn’t make it easy on themselves, losing 18 of 29 down the stretch, including two seven-game losing streaks in the final month.
All that recent frustration evaporated in less than 48 hours at Camden Yards, thanks to two sterling performances by both the Royals’ pitching staff and young phenom Bobby Witt Jr. The Royals allowed just one run in their two-game sweep of the Orioles. Cole Ragans tossed six shutout innings in Game 1, allowing four hits and striking out eight. Seth Lugo allowed one run and struck out six in 4.1 innings to start Game 2.
Kansas City’s relief corps did the rest, tossing 7.2 innings of combined two-hit ball. Sam Long, Kris Bubic and Lucas Erceg appeared in both contests, with Erceg, acquired from the Oakland Athletics at the trade deadline, recording two saves.
Bobby Witt Jr. further established himself as a superstar, leading the majors in batting average (.332) and hits (211) in the regular season while totaling 32 home runs, 109 RBIs and 31 stolen bases. Witt Jr. drove in the winning run in both games against the Orioles and batted .333 (3-for-9) in the short series.
After missing out on the postseason last year, the Yankees won the American League East for the second time in three seasons. This is the team’s eighth postseason appearance in the past 10 years, but the Bronx Bombers have not won the World Series since 2009.
New York went 36-28 in the second half of the season and held off the Cleveland Guardians for the American League’s top seed. The team’s duo of Aaron Judge and Juan Soto is as feared as any in the majors. Judge led the majors with 58 home runs and his 144 RBIs were the most in a season since Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies had 146 in 2008.
Soto was the perfect complement in what may be his only season in the Bronx. He had 41 home runs and 109 RBIs and his .989 OPS was second in the American League to Judge, who posted a Major League-leading 1.159 OPS.
Carlos Rodon (16-9, 3.96 ERA, 195 K’s) and Luis Gil (15-7, 3.50, 171 K’s) pace a Yankees pitching staff that finished fifth in the American League with a 3.74 team ERA, just ahead of the Royals (3.76).
Cole, a six-time All-Star and the 2023 American League Cy Young Award winner, takes the mound for the Yankees. After leading the AL in several categories in 2023, Cole was relegated to spectator for the first half of the season thanks to an elbow injury. After making his season debut in June, Cole posted an 8-5 record with a 3.41 ERA and 99 strikeouts in 95 innings pitched. He won his last two starts in the regular season, allowing just one run and four hits in 15.2 innings of work in victories over the Orioles and A’s.
Kansas City counters with journeyman Michael Wacha, on his fifth team in five seasons. Wacha was one of several masterful under-the-radar free-agent acquisitions for the Royals, going 13-8 with a 3.35 ERA.
This series will rightly be billed as a matchup between expected American League MVP Judge, who’s looking to improve on his career .211 batting average and .772 OPS in 44 career playoff games, and Witt Jr., who is expected to finish second in the AL MVP voting race. In just his third Major League season, Witt Jr. became the first player in history with 200 hits, 100 runs, 40 doubles, 30 homers, 10 triples and 30 stolen bases in the same season.
Brian has been writing about sports professionally for 25 years, specializing in the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, men's college basketball and football, and soccer. He covered high school, collegiate and professional sports in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area for two decades. His written work has appeared in several print and online publications since 1999.