BALTIMORE (AP) — After another loss in September left the Kansas City Royals with a second seven-game deficit in the final month of the season, Will Smith saw the upcoming day off as a chance to make his teammates laugh.

“You’re looking at this the wrong way,” Smith said. “The positive side is that we can’t lose tomorrow.”

The Royals won four of their last six games to make the playoffs a year later tying a franchise record with 106 lossesand after that a two-game sweep from Baltimore, they are heading to the AL Division Series to face the New York Yankees. It is the culmination of a remarkable turnaround from one season to the next and from one match to the next.

“All we are focusing on is now,” he said first baseman Vinnie Pasquantinowho had his surgically repaired right thumb covered as a precaution while spraying sparkling wine during a drunken visit to the clubhouse party. “We’re just focused on winning that pitch, and that’s what this team does. Losing streaks, winning streaks – it doesn’t matter. We just focus on the next pitch. We have done very well and we will continue to try to do it.”

AL batting champion Bobby Witt Jr., who rode in the preliminary round in Games 1 and 2 said the goal is “27 one-outs at a time.”

Manager Matt Quatraro, also a playoff rookie, said his players are taking that mentality to heart.

“They believe it,” Quatraro said. “You can’t just talk about it. You can’t just put it on a T-shirt and say let’s go, or hang it on a poster on the wall. You have to live it. These guys do.”

General manager JJ Picollo tried to surround his young core with veterans packed with playoff experience last season and at the trade deadline. Smith came in, a three-time World Series-winning relieveralong with Game 2 starter and All-Star Seth Lugo, Yuli Gurriel, Tommy Pham and Michael Wacha, who could get the ball for the ALDS opener at Yankee Stadium.

Leadoff hitter Michael Massey on Wednesday recalled Smith’s snide comment last month as a particularly strong example of older players softening the mood around the team when there were plenty of slumped shoulders and reasons for concern.

“It was a bit of an eye-opener,” Massey said. “We have lost seven in a row. Everyone thinks we’re not going to make the play-offs. We’re going to screw it up. Then you have someone who makes a joke about it.

“It shows you their experience and their confidence. They’ve been there before. They did it.”

Now all the Royals have a winning playoff experience: they come out of a close game by allowing one run over 18 innings while scoring three runs. It marks the first time Kansas City has won a playoff series of any kind since finishing atop baseball as World Series champions in 2015.

“I think this is the start of something special,” Witt said. “We didn’t come this far to get this far, so we’re going to keep chasing it and keep trying to create our own legacy.”

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