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Korean Karma continues: Royals cruise into ALCS Game 3 against Orioles

October 14, 2014

The Kansas City Royals are going into Tuesday’s game with an unbeaten 2014 postseason record (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

By The Korea Times Los Angeles staff

The Kansas City Royals will play Game 3 of the American League Championship Series against the Baltimore Orioles Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium.

After winning two games on the road, the Royals will be looking to extend a six-game postseason win streak including their wild-card win against the Oakland Athletics just a few weeks ago.

Lee Sung-woo, the Royals’ South Korean good luck charm, has been part of the journey since August when he visited Kansas City for 10 days. What resulted was a serendipitous 9-1 run by the Royals.

The way the team has been playing so far is reminiscent of Lee’s August visit and when fans playfully cite him as the reason for success, he responds humbly.

Longtime Kansas City Royals fan Lee Sung Woo is confident that the Royals deserve their postseason success (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

“I truly believe all the credit should go to the players, managers and coaches,” Lee said in an interview with SportsOnEarth.com.

Anyone who has been following the team through the postseason knows that Lee is certainly correct.

The Royals’ pitching staff has held their opponents to 3.2 runs in the postseason excluding the wild-card game, which is especially impressive considering the Los Angeles Angels and current opponent, the Orioles, are both considered offensive powerhouses. With solid starters in James Shields, Jordana Ventura and Jason Vargas, coupled with one of the best bullpens in the league, this type of performance isn’t as much of a surprise as the team’s offense.

With the fewest home runs of any major league team during the regular season, the Royals’ offense must have been sparked by something in October.

Coincidentally, when Lee made his visit to the states, the Royals’ offense lit up in a similar fashion. Instead of relying on power, the coaches are playing to other strengths such as speed to get runners in scoring position and from that point, clutch hitting has been bringing all those players in for runs.

One last thing to consider is that in the history of professional baseball, a team has never lost a League Series Championship after winning the first two games on the road so things look bright for the Royals heading into the middle of October.

Kansas City outfielder, Jarrod Dyson echoed that statistic when he was asked by the Kansas City Star about how the rest of the series was going to play out:

“I’ll just tell you this, man: If we win Game 3, it’s going to be hard for them to sit there and look themselves in the mirror and say, ‘We can win the next four.’ That’s tough to do, man. Everything must click. I’m just being honest.”

The Royals will start right-hander Jeremy Guthrie, who has yet to make a 2014 postseason debut, against Orioles’ left-hander Wei-Yin Chen for Game 3 of the ALCS.