If there was one moment of solace for this deflating series, it came in the fifth inning when Cedric Mullins got to soak in a brief star turn.

A day after turning 30, the long-tenured Orioles center fielder smashed a homer just left of the flag court, the team’s first run of the series after 13 of the longest scoreless innings I can remember. It was a ray of light peeking through the rolling clouds over Baltimore, tying the game and offering the Camden Yards faithful — though there were fewer of them in Game 2 than in Game 1 — hope that a 10-year gulf between home playoff wins might finally end.

But Mullins’ solo shot was not enough in a 2-1 loss that clinched a Kansas City sweep. The biggest stars in the Orioles’ lineup — Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman and Anthony Santander — couldn’t step up when their time came to shine. That ineffectiveness will loom over a pivotal offseason, leaving a bitter final taste as a new ownership group considers seismic moves.

It was not for lack of opportunity.

For three of the top four Orioles batters in wins above replacement, it is startling to see Baltimore’s power trio contribute so little to the playoff offense. Henderson went 0-for-7 with two walks and four strikeouts. Rutschman and Santander were both 1-for-8, lacing each of their hits in the fourth inning of Game 2.

The inning that will live in infamy is the same fifth frame when Mullins shot a jolt of life into an anemic offense. After his leadoff homer, the Orioles loaded the bases, putting Santander at the plate with an opportunity to change the series with a swing. Royals starter Seth Lugo was ripe for the plucking, allowing four straight batters to reach base safely before the burly right fielder got his shot.

But Santander, who broke club records with 44 dingers this season, swung at high pitches until he popped one above the strike zone to first. Immediately he grimaced, wanting the swing back even before the easy out reached the top of its arc.

“Very unfortunate,” Santander said through team translator Brandon Quinones. “I feel like I let the team down in that situation.”

Rookie Colton Cowser struck out on a high pitch from Angel Zerpa that broke his left hand, trying to defend himself as much as swinging. Rutschman grounded out.

Santander also had one of the roughest swings of Game 1, grounding out with runners at second and third in the eighth inning. As a team, Baltimore was 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position — not good enough to support a pitching staff that allowed just three runs in two games.

The power outage from the cornerstones of the Orioles franchise was all the more damning because Bobby Witt Jr., the 2019 draft pick after Rutschman, was sublime in his first playoff action. Witt was 3-for-9 and batted in the winning run in both games.

The Royals don’t win Game 2 without his unmatched speed on the basepaths. In the sixth inning, with two outs, he raced down the line to beat Jordan Westburg’s throw on a tough grounder up the middle, allowing the go-ahead run to score.

The Royals paid Witt in February, a hugely consequential decision for any franchise. All the 24-year-old has done since inking his 11-year, $288 million deal is win an AL batting title and come up clutch on the road in the Wild Card Series.

I’ve advocated several times in this space for the Orioles to do the same for their young stars, and the names that come up the most are Henderson and Rutschman. But, if you lock in to pay a player hundreds of millions of dollars for as long as a decade, you want to be sure he’s stud material.

I don’t envy Baltimore’s front office. I don’t know how you reconcile headliners who were clearly so pivotal in getting the Orioles to the postseason but then failed to materialize in the highest-leverage moments.

Henderson seemed to press at times, especially in Game 2. But the shortstop was 6-for-12 with a homer last year against Texas, and he’s been the Most Valuable Oriole in back-to-back seasons. As ugly as his batting lines were this year, you might chalk his two-game drought against Kansas City up to bad luck at the wrong time.

Rutschman’s continuing struggles, however, have bled into a larger sample. After a red-hot start, his power and consistency tailed off in a big way: He hit just .207 with a .585 OPS in the second half of the season. The slump adds extra anxiety to giving a big contract to a catcher, traditionally a position of wear and tear, and Rutschman will be 27 when his fourth big league campaign starts.

Rutschman took the sweep as hard as anyone, acknowledging his own role in another failure to launch through reddened eyes and tear-stained cheeks. He’s reached base in just four of 22 postseason plate appearances and notched only two hits.

“I was going through a lot of stuff with the hitting coaches and was in the cage every single day, looking at stuff and working on stuff,” Rutschman said. “Your body goes through a lot of things during the season. I’ll be ready to go come spring training.”

As the first big prospect to produce, Rutschman has been the face of the Orioles’ resurgence for 2 1/2 years. His struggles, then, feel emblematic of a franchise in search of a way not just get to the postseason but to win playoff games. This was a season of searching for the All-Star catcher and, without him, the Orioles were often searching as well.

A pending free agent, Santander will cash in this offseason for any team who wants a guy who can hit 40-plus homers. The Orioles will have to decide if they’re willing to pay Santander north of $20 million — or, more pertinently, whether they can afford to live without him in their lineup.

That decision process is approaching, but on a bleak Wednesday night, Santander said he was looking neither forward nor back. As he left Camden Yards for perhaps the last time as an Oriole, he thought only of the game he had just played — and the breakthrough he had just missed.

“In this moment,” he said, “I only have a chance to think about my broken heart.”