Yankees will face Royals in ALDS after Orioles get swept out of playoffs

What used to be a regular October occurrence is back after more than four decades, as the Yankees are set to face the Royals in the postseason for the first time since 1980.

Kansas City advanced to the ALDS with a sweep of the Orioles in the wild-card round, finishing it off with a 2-1 win in Baltimore on Wednesday.

Now the Yankees will look for more playoff success against the franchise they faced four times in a five-year span from 1976-80, with the Yankees winning three of those series.

But instead of Reggie Jackson and George Brett going head to head, the series will be centered around the top candidates for the AL MVP in Aaron Judge and Bobby Witt, Jr.

Judge made another run at the AL home run record that he set two years ago, finishing the season with 58.

Witt, the 24-year-old shortstop in his third season in the majors, stopped Judge from winning the Triple Crown by leading the AL with a .332 batting average.

The Yankees comeback following a disappointing 2023 season, in which they missed the playoffs, hardly compares to the turnaround in Kansas City.

The Royals lost 106 games a year ago, and were a threat to win the AL Central this season before a seven-game losing streak from late August to early September.

That was followed by a second seven-game skid later in September that nearly derailed their season, but the Royals did enough to get back to the playoffs for the first time since they beat the Mets to win the 2015 World Series.

Given the chance Tuesday to say which team he’d rather play in the ALDS, Aaron Boone declined to pick between the Royals and Orioles.

“I’m always careful what you wish for,” the manager said prior to the Yankees workout in The Bronx. “I tell that to coaches all the time. We may be in June watching a game and you’re watching a division rival play another team and you’re pulling for another team, I’m like, ‘Hey, careful what you wish for. That team may knock us out.’ So I’m always like, ‘Let it play out, we’ll prepare as best we can for whoever comes our way.’ ”

Now they know it’s the team they beat five out of seven times this season.

The Yankees swept the Royals at Kauffman Stadium in June before the teams split a four-game series in The Bronx last month.

Oddly, those were the only two games the Royals lost in a nine-game stretch in what was otherwise a pretty ugly month.

With an offense led by Witt and veteran catcher Salvador Perez — the only remaining player from that 2015 championship team — and a rotation featuring Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans, Kansas City will try to overcome its relative lack of postseason experience.

And their manager, Matt Quatraro, is in his second year in Kansas City’s dugout after five years on Kevin Cash’s staff in Tampa Bay.

Now, a year after finishing in last place, the Royals get a shot at the Yankees.