The Orioles couldn’t capitalize on the Royals’ big mistake. It might end their season. | ANALYSIS

In a 1-0 game, the team that makes the biggest mistake often loses.

On a wet Baltimore afternoon, the opposing left fielder slightly overran a fly ball, tried to course correct and slipped. An easy out fell for a double.

In an instant, the “mojo” that’s been so frequently discussed, the magic that’s been missing for months, the luck that wasn’t there last October — it all flooded into Camden Yards. For one of the few times Tuesday, the fans were so loud it made everyone forget about the fact that a rare home playoff game — only the club’s ninth this century — wasn’t sold out .

Cedric Mullins then singled, and the optimism at Oriole Park reached its highest point all season. The moment to flush a mediocre second half, put the Kansas City Royals on their heels and perhaps end MLB’s longest-active playoff losing streak was there for the taking.

Then, just like that, it was over — squandered.

Royals ace Cole Ragans struck out the next two batters to escape the first-and-third jam and send the scoreless game to the sixth. He sat down James McCann, a player whose existence in the lineup is a sign of the Orioles’ deficiencies, on three pitches and Gunnar Henderson, a superstar whose presence atop the order is a sign of its strength, on five pitches.

Melendez’s blunder was the biggest made in the game. The Orioles couldn’t capitalize on it and lost the game — and maybe their season — as a result.

“I thought we had some opportunities, we just didn’t come through,” Henderson said after the Orioles’ 1-0 loss in Game 1 of the American League wild-card series.

Less than 10 minutes later, the Orioles made their biggest mistake, and the Royals made them pay.

Corbin Burnes, whose performance was nearly unimpeachable, issued a one-out walk to Maikel Garcia in the sixth. Garcia, the Royals’ No. 9 hitter, is one of baseball’s worst hitters (.614 OPS) but one of its best base stealers (37 stolen bases). Burnes is one of the sport’s best pitchers (2.92 ERA) but one of its worst at preventing stolen bases (41 allowed).

Burnes is human — although his performance at times makes even that a question — and walks are part of the game. He surely wasn’t trying to walk him, throwing strikes is far harder than fans realize and Garcia deserves credit for working the eight-pitch plate appearance. But the combination of the factors at play make the free pass unfathomable. What followed proved why: Garcia stole second, advanced to third on a well-placed groundout and Royals superstar Bobby Witt Jr. smacked a soft single through the 5 1/2 hole for the game’s lone run.

“The walk hurt. The walk cost us the game,” Burnes said. “If I attacked him a little better, we get through there and we’re in a 0-0 ball game, we got a chance. Unfortunately, the one big swing today from Bobby was the deciding factor in that game.”

Orioles vs. Royals in Game 1 of AL wild-card series | PHOTOS

The gift Melendez handed the Orioles is one they never received last October when they were swept by the Texas Rangers in the AL Division Series. The Rangers, as manager Brandon Hyde described last month, got “pissed off” and took out their frustration on their opponents en route to a World Series.

But what those Rangers also did was take advantage of the types of mistakes the Orioles didn’t Tuesday.

“We did catch a break,” Hyde said postgame, “and we didn’t cash in.”

Of course, the blue and white-colored glasses of Tuesday’s game is much different. It wasn’t the Orioles’ missed opportunity that decided the game. Instead, it was Ragans’ calm and Witt’s clutch that won the game for the Royals, the underdogs in a series on the road against a better ballclub.

That, too, is all true. Ragans was stellar with six shutout innings, and Witt came up with the big hit. In the ninth, after Ryan O’Hearn’s leadoff walk, Adley Rutschman struck out looking on a pitch that Baseball Savant shows barely clipped the bottom of the zone.

“I try and manage the strike zone as good as I can,” Rutschman said. “Initially, I thought it was down. I haven’t looked at it yet. But, obviously, can’t afford a strikeout in that situation, so either way, it’s probably on me.”

For the Orioles to stay alive and win Game 2 on Wednesday , someone — anyone — will have to come up with a big hit. They went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position Tuesday after spending much of the second half floundering in those exact scenarios.

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The mojo was back last week when the Orioles went 5-1 to end the season after getting a trio of hitters back healthy. Has one bad game sent the mojo away again?

“I don’t think you can take this game and go, ‘Oh, we’re struggling again,’” O’Hearn said. “It’s a playoff game. It’s a whole different thing. Bottom line is: You’ve got to find a way to score runs.”

The juxtaposition between the two innings is a microcosm of what makes playoff baseball feel so special and cruel at the same time. Eight months, 162 games, nearly 1,500 innings — and it all comes down to that.

McCann and Henderson didn’t come through to punish the Royals’ mistake; Witt did to hand Burnes and the Orioles the loss.

“It’s baseball,” Burnes said. “Postseason usually is won with one big swing. Today was only one swing the entire game that meant anything.”

Baltimore Sun reporter Matt Weyrich contributed to this article. Have a news tip? Contact Jacob Calvin Meyer at jameyer@baltsun.com , 667-942-3337 and x.com/JCalvinMeyer .