The 2014 Major League Baseball postseason has begun, and after waiting so long, the field has dwindled to just eight teams.

And two of those teams, the Detroit Tigers and Baltimore Orioles, will face each other Thursday in 2014 MLB playoffs action.

The Kansas City Royals started off the postseason magic by eliminating the Oakland Athletics in 12-inning thriller in the American League. Then, the San Francisco Giants eliminated the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League Wild Card game.

The Tigers and Orioles will face off in a best of five series in the American League Division round. How do these teams fare? Let's take a look:

Detroit Tigers

The Detroit Tigers finished the regular season 90-72, good enough for first place in the American League Central. This is the fourth consecutive season the Tigers have qualified for the postseason, and the Tigers are looking to keep their playoff win streak alive. The Tigers have won at least one postseason series the last three seasons.

As usual, the Venezuelan combo of Victor Martinez and Miguel Cabrera lead the way for the Tigers. The two have a combined 57 home runs and 212 runs batted in, and both are batting over .310 at the plate this year.

The Tigers don't have home field advantage, and they did finish the regular season with six fewer wins than the Orioles, but don't sleep on this team. The Tigers were 5-1 against the Orioles during the regular season and have far more postseason experience than the Orioles do.

Baltimore Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles finished the regular season 96-66, a dominating 12 games ahead of the New York Yankees in the American League East. The biggest reason the Orioles had so much success was because of home runs. The Orioles led the entire league in home runs hit.

Nelson Cruz led the way with 40 home runs hit during the regular season. Others such as Steve Pearce, Adam Jones and Chris Davis all had more than 20 home runs this season. This team thrives on hitting the long ball, so walking them isn't the worst thing in the world.

After missing the postseason to start off the 21st century, the Orioles have now made the playoffs two of the last three seasons. The Orioles have also had a winning record the last three consecutive seasons. With Derek Jeter retiring and the Yankees in need of rebuilding, the window is opening for this franchise, which hasn't won a World Series since 1983.

Schedule, How to Watch

Game 1 will be played at Camden Yards Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland at 5:37 p.m. EST Thursday. The game will be shown on TBS. The first game will feature pitchers Max Scherzer against Chris Tillman on the mound. The game can be seen via live stream at TBS.com.

Game 2: Friday, in Baltimore at 12:07 p.m.

Game 3: Sunday, in Detroit at 3:45 p.m.

Game 4: Monday, in Detroit. TBD

Game 5: Wednesday, in Baltimore. TBD

Predictions

The Orioles have home field advantage in this short series, but the Tigers did win five of six meetings in the regular season. If the Tigers can limit home runs against, they should be able to force a game 5 on the road. Then, experience kick in.

Tigers win the series 3-2

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