Royals social media team trolls Orioles after AL Wild Card series sweep

Prior to the start of the AL Wild Card round, the Orioles social media team posted a photo of a throne, with an oriole photoshopped on the seat. Orioles fans were enthusiastic heading into Tuesday's matchup and many experts predicted that Baltimore would beat the Royals and move on to face the Yankees in the ALDS.

That fate wasn't meant to be, as the Orioles dropped two games in a row to Kansas City, managing just one run combined across two days of baseball. The O's pitchers shoved, with Corbin Burnes and Zach Eflin both holding up their end of the bargain. The bullpen was also mostly effective, with the group allowing just one run between them.

After their victory on Wednesday, the Royals social media team took to Twitter and reposted the Orioles' photo with Bobby Witt Jr. at the helm and bird feathers scattered everywhere. The Tweet was captioned "you come for the crown you best not miss", which in and of itself is another subtle dig at the O's in reference to a similar quote from the Baltimore-based HBO TV hit The Wire.

All told, the Orioles mostly beat themselves in the series. While the offense was shoddy in the second half, the O's were one of the best teams in the AL in terms of total run production. They'd just gotten Jordan Westburg back, Gunnar Henderson is bound to receive down-ballot MVP votes, and Anthony Santander was working on a career-best 44 homers.

Not only did nobody in that group do anything of note in the series, the entire lineup rolled over against the Royals' pitchers. Granted, Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo are good in their own right but managing just 1 run on 11 hits across the two combined days isn't ever going to be good enough.

The Birds couldn't get runners into scoring position, they had few real scoring threats in the series, and two would-be home runs from Westburg and Ramon Urias died in the O's expended left field. Needless to say, it's a tough time to be an Orioles fan right now.

The disappointment stemming from a difficult loss, which happens to be the 10th consecutive playoff loss for the O's, isn't going away any time soon. With any luck, the Yankees will get eliminated in short order so we don't have to deal with a rival threatening to win a World Series championship on top of everything else.