Kansas City at Baltimore

Looking back at the start of the season, not many would have pegged the Baltimore Orioles and the Kansas City Royals to square off in the ALCS. One thing for sure is that the winner of this series will represent a team that has not been to the fall classic in at least 20 years. James Shields was picked up in an attempt to get the Royals here and he has delivered a strong season. Shields has beaten Baltimore twice this season in two starts, but those both came very early on, the last of which came on May 18th. Most don't remember that Baltimore closed May with a 27-27 record through 54 games, and through June were just four games over .500 when they took off. Since July 1st, Baltimore is 56-27, and a big part of that success has been credited to the efforts of Chris Tillman. Baltimore is 12-1 in Tillman's last 13 starts where they have outscored opponents 6.1 to 2.6. Those are some hard numbers to buck at slender odds as we have for this one. Baltimore has been 56-27, and at home the record has been 32-10 since July 1st. Baltimore gets this one.