BALTIMORE – A misty, gray haze blanketed the Charm City Tuesday morning. The steady rain initially felt like a good omen for the Orioles. That a team so completely obsessed with water and its various states of flow woke up to a downpour on the day of the first post-season game seemed fitting.

Over the past 18 months, water-related tricks and gimmicks have become a ubiquitous part of the Orioles experience. Players mimic the tap when they hit a single, and squirt water from their mouths when a teammate hits a double. At the end of the dugout is a repurposed beer hopper called “the hydration station.” When an O homeruns, the players fill the device with water and gulp it down festively. In left center field, a section of seats considered “The Birdbath” is doused with a water hose by a goggle-wearing character named Mr. Splash when the team scores an extra base hit.

Perhaps it was an ominous omen that the drizzle had cleared about an hour before the first pitch.

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On a day when star player Corbin Burnes delivered the playoff performance of his life, allowing just one run in eight masterful innings, Baltimore’s offense ran dry. Kansas City starter Cole Ragans confused the Birds for six innings with a barrage of well-placed heaters before leaving early due to a calf problem. His bullpen finished the job, throwing a trio of scoreless frames and keeping the Orioles from hitting home.

The Royals scored just once, on a two-out RBI single by their supernova shortstop, Bobby Witt Jr.. Third baseman Maikel Garcia, whose stolen base proved crucial earlier in the inning, ran home to give Kansas City the lead to put. That was enough.

“As (Royals veteran outfielder) Tommy Pham says, when you allow zero runs to the other team, you have a 99.999999 percent chance of winning the ballgame,” Witt joked after his team’s 1-0 victory.

That he has arrived at the moment should come as no surprise. The 24-year-old shortstop has proven himself as one of the game’s best players throughout the regular season. Time and again he carried the Royals to victory. In many other seasons, his 32 home runs, 31 steals and .332 batting average with excellent shortstop defense would earn him MVP honors. And his immense talent is matched only by his unfettered joy for the game, his rare, childlike energy.

Last week, at the Royals’ champagne celebration after winning a wild card, Witt told MLB.com that he was most excited to get the October-related T-shirts he saw so often on TV as a kid. On Tuesday, in the first postseason game of his young career, the power-speed dynamo rose to the moment.

The Orioles’ bats certainly didn’t, wasting one of the most brilliant playoff starts in recent memory.

Burnes, who was removed after allowing a leadoff single in the ninth, became the first starter since Steven Strasburg in Game 6 of the 2019 World Series to throw a pitch in the ninth inning of a playoff game. In the past decade of postseason baseball, only seven other starting pitchers have worked that deep. Only one – Matt Harvey against the same Kansas City Royals in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series – ultimately lost the ballgame.

The same fate befell Burnes, whom the Orioles acquired from Milwaukee this winter for a pair of highly touted prospects. The deal represented the first truly aggressive maneuver by Orioles GM Mike Elias and his front office since the team’s competitive window opened in 2023. Saying goodbye to controllable, young talent and adding a free agent in Burnes signaled to the baseball world that the Orioles were leaving. before it. They seized the opportunity and took advantage of their dynamic, young attacking core.

That core was nowhere to be found on Tuesday. Baltimore’s top five hitters – Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Anthony Santander, Ryan Mountcastle and Adley Rutschman – went 1-for-18 against Royals pitching. Ragans was excellent, but the Orioles outpaced him and squandered two golden opportunities in the early innings. Twice, catcher and nine-hole hitter James McCann struck out in a huge spot – first in the third, with a runner on second base and no one out, and then in the fifth, with runners on the corners and one behind. That was as close as Baltimore could get.

As the zeros climbed higher, a dark cloud of deja vu settled over Camden Yards. Last year, a 101-win AL East champion Orioles team paraded into the postseason with huge expectations. In two ALDS home games against the Texas Rangers, the Birds faltered. They were overwhelmed by the eventual champions, blinded in the spotlight, swept up in the moment.

Ahead of this fall’s tournament, the Birds reframed their end-of-season swoon as a positive, arguing that their confrontation with adversity would propel them forward when the pressure cooker of October begins. They had seen the bottom and fought back. Now they could handle the intensity.

That’s the opposite of what happened on Tuesday. Once again, Baltimore’s offense withered on the big stage.

It was even more frustrating considering how well Burnes pitched.

After speaking with members of the media after the game, the Baltimore ace sat quietly on a chair in front of his locker. Still wearing his black short-sleeved undershirt and gaming pants, Burnes scrolled aimlessly on the phone as it rested in his right hand, the same dominant hand that dominated just hours before.

Other Orioles wandering past their ace took a moment to recognize his masterpiece. They patted Burnes on the back, gave him a fist bump or stammered out some version of “great job today.” Burnes, disappointment floating over him, nodded in agreement or muttered a thank you in return. Part congratulations, part apology. A ‘thank you’ and a ‘sorry’.

And if the Orioles lose tomorrow, a farewell.

Burnes will be a free agent when Baltimore’s season ends. He will receive a contract worth more than $200 million. It doesn’t seem likely that the Orioles – analytically driven and historically frugal – will retain their assets. It is expected that Burnes will pitch in different colors next season. Unless the Birds can engineer a turnaround, his tenure in Charm City will go down as a colossal missed opportunity.

For six months and one wet day in October, Burnes kept his end of the bargain.

The same can’t be said for Baltimore’s lineup.