The view from Baltimore: Royals’ Jeremy Guthrie says it’s ‘pretty cool’ to face Orioles in ALCS

Not long after his team finished a three-game sweep Sunday night of the league-best Los Angeles Angels, Kansas City Royals pitcher Jeremy Guthrie received a text message from one of his former teammates.

Orioles reliever Brian Matusz congratulated Guthrie and the two exchanged brief pleasantries knowing that they’d probably have a chance to speak in person very soon.

When the Orioles and Royals meet in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series on Friday night at Camden Yards, no player from either team will be able to put the unlikely matchup in perspective quite like Guthrie.

He pitched five years in Baltimore and then was traded to the Colorado Rockies for pitchers Jason Hammel and Matt Lindstrom before the 2012 season, the year the Orioles broke their stretch of 14 losing seasons and made the playoffs for the first time since 1997. Guthrie’s time with the Rockies was a disaster, and he was eventually traded to the Royals, for whom he became a key member of a quality starting rotation that helped Kansas City reach the playoffs this year for the first time since 1985.

“The way I look at it is in some ways, it’s very ironic,” Guthrie said Tuesday night in a phone interview with The Baltimore Sun. “I got my feet wet and my opportunity to establish myself as a player with the Orioles. For the five seasons I was there, we weren’t a very good baseball team and didn’t win a lot of games. Then, I was traded for a couple of players who helped them end that drought. Now, the Orioles have had a chance to go to the playoffs twice in the last three years. And I’m in the playoffs for an organization that had a longer drought and had even more difficulty winning.”

Read more of the story on the Baltimore Sun’s website.

This story was originally published October 8, 2014 at 9:39 PM with the headline "The view from Baltimore: Royals’ Jeremy Guthrie says it’s ‘pretty cool’ to face Orioles in ALCS."