The 17-15 Royals come into the first weekend series in May riding high. They had that nasty six-game losing streak in mid-April but have lost only one game since then. They’ve done it with a mix of small-ball offense and excellent pitching.
On the other hand, the 12-18 Orioles are in last place in their division. They just came off a series with the Yankees, taking 2 of 3, but they have otherwise done quite a bit of losing recently. Their pitching especially is struggling - over the past 14 days, they’ve sent 20 different guys to the mound to pitch.