NEW YORK — For the second year in a row, MLB can’t spell October without “O.”

The Orioles clinched a spot in the playoffs Tuesday, beating the Yankees on the road shortly before a Minnesota Twins loss ensured no one would be able to catch them for at least the last wild-card spot.

On Friday night, the Orioles beat the Twins, 7-2, to clinch the top wild-card spot in the American League and home-field advantage throughout the best-of-three first-round series. But their first opponent is still to be determined, and they could see any of the five other AL playoff teams on their way to the World Series.

Here’s a look at how the Orioles match up with each of them.

Statistics through Tuesday’s games

New York Yankees

Where Orioles could see them: AL Division Series, AL Championship Series

Projected playoff rotation: Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón (L), Luis Gil, Clarke Schmidt

Projected back end of bullpen: Luke Weaver, Tommy Kahnle, Tim Hill (L), Clay Holmes

Hitters to watch: OF Aaron Judge, OF Juan Soto, 3B Jazz Chisholm Jr., C Austin Wells, DH Giancarlo Stanton

Biggest strength: The Soto-Judge tandem in the middle of the Yankees’ lineup is one of the best 1-2 punches in the sport, and a matchup nightmare for opposing bullpens. With each hitting from either side of the plate, there’s no easy platoon advantage — and both are good enough to crush pitchers regardless of what arm they use to throw.

Biggest weakness: Even with the addition of Chisholm at the deadline, New York’s lineup lacks a strong supporting cast around its top two sluggers. Yankees hitters not named Judge or Soto have combined for a .676 OPS, a total that would rank sixth worst among MLB clubs. The pressure will be on Chisholm and Wells — who have 11 career playoff at-bats between them — along with Stanton to make opponents pay for pitching around Soto and Judge.

How the Orioles match up: While the Yankees’ lineup lacks depth, their rotation is shaping up to be one of the best quartets top to bottom in the sport. Despite Nestor Cortes Jr. landing on the injured list Wednesday, New York has a bonafide ace in Cole, the southpaw Rodón riding a strong second half, a leading AL Rookie of the Year Award candidate in Gil and a returning pitcher in Schmidt who has posted the best ERA of any of them this season at 2.55.

Fans hoping to see a Corbin Burnes-Cole matchup might be disappointed. If Burnes starts Game 1 of the wild-card round, he won’t be on normal rest until Game 2 of the ALDS. That would set up a back-end Orioles starter to go up against Cole in Game 1, Burnes and Eflin facing one of Rodón or Gil the next two games and Kremer taking the ball opposite Schmidt. Those would be some of the toughest pitching matchups Baltimore can face this postseason.

Cleveland Guardians

Where Orioles could see them: ALDS, ALCS

Projected playoff rotation: Tanner Bibee, Matthew Boyd (L), Alex Cobb, Gavin Williams

Projected back end of bullpen: Emmanuel Clase, Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herrin (L)

Hitters to watch: 3B José Ramírez, OF Steven Kwan, 1B Josh Naylor, UTIL David Fry

Biggest strength: The Guardians’ bullpen is the best in baseball, and it’s not really close. It starts with Clase, who is on his way to leading the AL in saves for the third straight year while posting a miniscule 0.62 ERA. But setup men Smith (1.96 ERA), Gaddis (1.49) and Herrin (1.98) have put up video-game numbers as well, effectively shortening games the Guardians lead after five innings.

Biggest weakness: Cleveland’s relievers can only protect the leads their starting pitchers give them. The Guardians’ rotation lost its ace Shane Bieber to Tommy John surgery early in the season, and while Bibee has taken a step forward as a promising young arm, Triston McKenzie, Logan Allen and Carlos Carrasco are all in the minor leagues after posting ERAs over 5.00. They added some pitching help at the deadline with the additions of Boyd and former Oriole Cobb, but the Guardians will need their league-average offense to pick up the slack in October.

How the Orioles match up: The Guardians’ lineup is stocked with left-handed hitters and switch hitters, yet they’ve struggled mightily against right-handed pitching with a .686 OPS against them that ranks dead last among playoff contenders. That’s good news for the Orioles’ rotation, which will likely have no lefties, but not so much for their bullpen, which might carry as many as five southpaws.

Between those platoon splits and the Guardians’ relief corps, scoring early will be crucial for the Orioles in any playoff game against them. Cleveland’s starters are unproven and Baltimore should have the advantage for the first five or six innings. Tight games are to be expected, but an early cushion might be the key difference between eventual wins and losses.

Houston Astros

Where Orioles could see them: ALDS, ALCS

Projected playoff rotation: Framber Valdez (L), Ronel Blanco, Yusei Kikuchi (L), Hunter Brown

Projected back end of bullpen: Josh Hader (L), Bryan Abreu, Ryan Pressly, Tayler Scott

Hitters to watch: DH Yordan Alvarez, 2B Jose Altuve, OF Kyle Tucker, 3B Alex Bregman, C Yainer Diaz

Biggest strength: No offense has collected more hits this season than Houston. The Astros boast a deep lineup capable of stringing together long rallies, and they have plenty of power to clear the bases and put up crooked numbers. With decades’ worth of playoff experience between them all, nobody should be fooled by their middle-of-road season average of 4.4 runs per game.

Biggest weakness: The Astros’ first-year manager Joe Espada deserves a lot of credit for helping turn their season around after a slow start, but he will be wading into unfamiliar waters managing in the postseason for the first time. The brother-in-law of Orioles skipper Brandon Hyde will have to prove he can pull the right strings to make a World Series run like former Astros managers A.J. Hinch and Dusty Baker did before him.

How the Orioles match up: How Houston’s lefty trio of Valdez, Kikuchi and Hader fares against the Orioles’ southpaw-killers Adley Rutschman, Jordan Westburg and Ryan Mountcastle will go a long way in determining which team has the advantage in an extended series. Two of those Orioles, Westburg and Mountcastle, only returned from the injured list this past week while Rustchman appears to be just breaking out of an extended slump.

Meanwhile, Valdez is one of the best lefties in the sport, Kikuchi has plenty of history with Mountcastle and Co. but has provided the Astros a huge boost since the trade deadline and Hader is an elite closer. The Orioles will need to break through against at least one of them to put themselves in a position to beat the Astros, and their trio of Rutschman, Westburg and Mountcastle are their best chance at finding chips in the armor.

Detroit Tigers

Where Orioles could see them: Wild-card round, ALCS

Projected playoff rotation: Tarik Skubal, Reese Olson, Casey Mize, opener

Projected back end of bullpen: Jason Foley, Tyler Holton (L), Will Vest, Beau Brieske

Hitters to watch: OF Riley Greene, OF Kerry Carpenter, OF Parker Meadows, UTIL Matt Vierling

Biggest strength: The Tigers have been among the hottest teams in baseball since the All-Star break because of their pitching, which leads the majors with a 3.10 ERA in the second half. Skubal has separated himself as the clear favorite to win the AL Cy Young Award and Olson has emerged as a key piece to their young rotation. Their bullpen, which has gotten plenty of work in opener roles as well as late-inning spots, is also quietly one of the premiere units in MLB.

Biggest weakness: Offense is often difficult to produce for Detroit, which employs just two hitters (Greene and Vierling) who have at least 300 plate appearances and an OPS over league average. Carpenter looks like a Most Valuable Player Award contender against righties (1.008 OPS) but can’t touch lefties at all (.408 OPS). Meadows would be a decent bet for a 20-20 season if he played a full year, though he struggles to reach base consistently. Outside of those four, there are a lot of holes in the Tigers’ lineup.

How the Orioles match up: As the Orioles just saw, the Tigers wouldn’t be a fun opponent to face in the postseason. Detroit took four of six games against them last week and only once allowed more than four runs, including one in which they carried a bid for a no-hitter into the ninth. A wild-card series between these teams could wind up coming down to a couple hits in key spots.

Baltimore’s biggest advantage would be that all three games are played in consecutive games, which could lead to the Tigers’ bullpen being taxed if the Orioles can work their starters’ pitch counts up early. They would also have a clear advantage in a Game 3 pitching matchup between Kremer and Mize, the latter of whom has struggled to complete five innings from start to start.

Kansas City Royals

Where Orioles could see them: Wild-card round, ALCS

Projected playoff rotation: Seth Lugo, Cole Ragans (L), Brady Singer, Michael Wacha

Projected back end of bullpen: Lucas Erceg, Kris Bubic (L), John Schreiber, Sam Long (L)

Hitters to watch: SS Bobby Witt Jr., C/1B Salvador Perez, C Freddy Fermin, OF Hunter Renfroe

Biggest strength: There are no holes in the Royals’ rotation. Lugo has been a workhorse for Kansas City and one of the best stories of the year, enjoying a career season at 34 years old. Ragans showed signs a breakout was coming with a strong second half in 2023 and he has followed that up with 223 strikeouts and a 3.14 ERA this year. Singer and Wacha aren’t big names, but the Royals are happy to let them fly under the radar with the results they’re having.

Biggest weakness: Over his previous nine games heading into Wednesday, Witt had two home runs, nine RBIs and a 1.225 OPS. In that span, the rest of the Royals offense had zero homers and eight RBIs while the team put up an MLB-worst .575 OPS. Witt is likely going to be the runner-up to Judge in the AL MVP race, but the Royals have little-no-support behind him especially after Vinnie Pasquantino suffered a thumb injury that might not allow him to return this season.

How the Orioles match up: The clear advantage for Baltimore is on the offensive side, where Gunnar Henderson’s supporting cast runs much deeper than that of Witt. They won’t have it easy trying to put up runs against either Kansas City’s starters, which will put plenty of pressure on Burnes and Eflin to match the aces they face. But the Royals’ reshaped bullpen offers opportunity to pull out victories late in games.

The key will be avoiding Erceg, who has stepped into the closer role after arriving in a trade deadline deal with the Oakland A’s. Bubic has impressed when healthy, but the Royals lack shutdown relievers behind him who can bridge the middle-to-late innings that are crucial in playoff settings where starters have shorter leashes to work out of trouble.