Kansas City Royals Sweep Baltimore Orioles To Advance To World Series

The Kansas City Royals, who had not seen the playoffs since 1985, have swept the Baltimore Orioles, winning the American League pennant and securing a spot in the World Series.

As The New York Times puts it, right now, the Royals can do no wrong. The team has yet to lose a playoff game, stringing together eight straight victories, a feat no other team has accomplished.

Today, they perfected that run by beating Baltimore 2-1.

In fact, because they won the World Series in 1985, the team's postseason winning streak goes back 11 games and 29 years.

Here's how ESPN sums up this team's improbable journey:

"It's hard not to be a believer at this point. The Royals, who scratched their way to the postseason as an 89-win wild-card team, have joined the 1976 Cincinnati Reds and 2007 Colorado Rockies as only the third team in baseball history to win seven straight games to begin a postseason. No team has ever opened a postseason with eight.

"With every victory, Kansas City's fun 'little engine that could' narrative gives way to a 'team of destiny' storyline. If the Royals weren't so unassuming and relatively low-paid, you might call them a budding juggernaut."

The Royals may have to wait a while to continue their streak. On the National League side, the St. Louis Cardinals are battling the San Francisco Giants, who lead the seven-game series 2-1. Game 4 is tonight in San Francisco.

Update: 12:05 a.m. ET Thursday: The Giants beat the Cardinals 6-4 to take a 3-1 lead in the National League Championship Series. They can wrap up their own World Series trip with a win at 8 p.m. ET Thursday in San Francisco. If the Cardinals can win Thursday, the final two games of the series would be in St. Louis on Saturday and Sunday.