The Kansas City Royals, who had not seen the playoffs since 1985, have swept the Baltimore Orioles, winning the American League pennant and securing a spot in the World Series.

As The New York Times puts it, right now, the Royals can do no wrong. The team has yet to lose a playoff game, stringing together eight straight victories, a feat no other team has accomplished.

Today, they perfected that run by beating Baltimore 2-1.

In fact, because they won the World Series in 1985, the team's postseason winning streak goes back 11 games and 29 years.

Here's how ESPN sums up this team's improbable journey:

"It's hard not to be a believer at this point. The Royals, who scratched their way to the postseason as an 89-win wild-card team, have joined the 1976 Cincinnati Reds and 2007 Colorado Rockies as only the third team in baseball history to win seven straight games to begin a postseason. No team has ever opened a postseason with eight.

"With every victory, Kansas City's fun 'little engine that could' narrative gives way to a 'team of destiny' storyline. If the Royals weren't so unassuming and relatively low-paid, you might call them a budding juggernaut."

The Royals may have to wait a while to continue their streak. On the National League side, the St. Louis Cardinals are battling the San Francisco Giants, who lead the seven-game series 2-1. Game 4 is tonight in San Francisco.

Update: 12:05 a.m. ET Thursday: The Giants beat the Cardinals 6-4 to take a 3-1 lead in the National League Championship Series. They can wrap up their own World Series trip with a win at 8 p.m. ET Thursday in San Francisco. If the Cardinals can win Thursday, the final two games of the series would be in St. Louis on Saturday and Sunday.

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