ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Mike Moustakas homered leading off the 11th inning, and the Kansas City Royals kept rolling in their first postseason in 29 years with a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels in the AL Division Series opener Thursday night.

Moustakas hit the first extra-inning homer in postseason history for the Royals, a high shot off Fernando Salas that barely reached the elevated right-field stands at Angel Stadium.

Alcides Escobar had an early RBI double for the Royals, and their bullpen repeatedly escaped trouble in Kansas City’s first game since that spectacular, 12-inning comeback victory over Oakland in the wild-card playoff Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium.

Game 2 in the best-of-five series is Friday night at the Big A, with Angels 16-game winner Matt Shoemaker taking on fellow rookie Yordano Ventura.

Chris Iannetta and David Freese homered early in the Angels’ first playoff game since 2009, but the majors’ most productive offense stranded eight runners in the five innings before Greg Holland’s perfect 11th.

Winning pitcher Danny Duffy worked the 10th for Kansas City, and Holland picked up the save after arriving at the ballpark around the fourth inning. He went to North Carolina on the Royals’ off day to attend his child’s birth.

Mike Trout was 0 for 4 with a walk in his playoff debut. The favorite for AL MVP grounded into a fielder’s choice in the 10th before Albert Pujols popped out to end his 0-for-4 Angels playoff debut. Josh Hamilton popped out to end the game, capping his 0-for-5 return to the lineup.

Jered Weaver, Joe Smith and Huston Street combined to retire Kansas City’s final 15 batters before extra innings — and that’s when the Royals went to work. Kevin Jepsen let two runners on in the 10th, but retired Salvador Perez and Omar Infante to escape.

Salas wasn’t as lucky, giving up a homer to the Royals’ No. 9 hitter. Moustakas grew up in the San Fernando Valley and played at UCLA before making his big league debut and hitting his first homer at the Big A in 2011.

A raucous crowd banged balloons and cheered on the Angels throughout their postseason return after a half-decade away, but the fans got tense while the teams managed just three hits apiece in the first nine innings. Los Angeles earned home-field advantage throughout the postseason with a big league-best 98-64 record in the regular season, winning the AL West while scoring 773 runs.

The Royals can’t match Los Angeles’ offense on paper, but they’ve got some remarkable postseason mojo.

Even before Moustakas’ homer, Nori Aoki made dramatically awkward catches on the right-field warning track to end the sixth and seventh, twice making up for poor routes to the Angels’ drives with a last-instant stab. Lorenzo Cain also made two exceptional plays in center field in the first two innings, underlining Kansas City’s stellar defense.

Weaver yielded three hits over seven strong innings for the Angels while his good friend, Jason Vargas, pitched six innings of three-hit ball for Kansas City.

Weaver and Vargas played together at nearby Long Beach State and again with the Angels last year. They’re taking a vacation together after the season — but first, the former Dirtbags dueled through 6 1/2 tense innings in Orange County.

After Escobar put the Royals ahead, Los Angeles tied it when Iannetta drove a fastball into the bullpens in his first career playoff at-bat. While Trout’s October debut received all the pregame attention, the Angels’ tough catcher also got his first postseason experience after sitting out twice when his Colorado Rockies made the playoffs.

Kansas City went back ahead in the fifth when Alex Gordon doubled and scored on Infante’s sacrifice fly, but Freese tied it again with another drive to the bullpens in left. Freese, the MVP of the 2011 World Series and NLCS for St. Louis, got his 24th postseason extra-base hit and 30th RBI in his Angels playoff debut.

The Angels put two runners on against a tiring Vargas in the sixth, and Royals fans might have had bitter flashbacks to manager Ned Yost’s much-debated, sixth-inning pitching decisions in the wild-card game. But Aoki saved Kansas City when he blindly nabbed Howie Kendrick’s drive to the warning track in right.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Royals: RHP Kelvin Herrera walked Freese on five pitches leading off the seventh and then left the game with right forearm tightness. Herrera is a key member of Kansas City’s vaunted bullpen.

Angels: Hamilton played left field and batted seventh after missing 21 of the Angels’ final 22 regular-season games with upper-body injuries.

UP NEXT

Shoemaker (16-4, 3.04 ERA), the 28-year-old rookie who gets credit from manager Mike Scioscia for saving the Angels’ season, makes his playoff debut. He hasn’t pitched since Sept. 15, when he strained an oblique muscle. Kansas City counters with Ventura (14-10, 3.20), who struggled in the sixth inning of the wild-card game, but possesses a 100 mph fastball.

— Associated Press —

 

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) – Mike Trout asked Albert Pujols for advice on his playoff debut before the Los Angeles Angels stepped into the October spotlight, and the veteran slugger with two World Series rings had some simple guidance for baseball’s best young player.

”He told me to just be myself, and not try to hit that home run when you don’t need it,” Trout said. ”Just keep that same swing that got you here, and go from there. (But) it’s definitely a bigger game, for sure. All eyes are on you.”

Trout reaches the milestone he craves most Thursday night when he runs out to center field at the Big A for the Angels’ American League Division Series opener against the Kansas City Royals, who must concoct a quick encore to their incredible 12-inning comeback victory in the wild-card game.

Trout led the majors in RBI, runs and extra-base hits this season for the major league-leading Angels (98-64), capping nearly three full seasons of electrifying play with a likely MVP campaign — and a playoff berth.

It sure beats last October, which the New Jersey native spent back home in a tree stand when he wasn’t watching the playoffs on television.

”Now I’m hunting a ring instead of deer,” Trout said with a laugh.

While the Royals are in their first postseason since 1985, the Angels hadn’t been in the playoffs since 2009, and several regulars share Trout’s lack of experience on the big stage. But Pujols has a vaunted postseason history from his time in St. Louis, and third baseman David Freese was the MVP of the World Series and the NL Championship Series for the Cardinals just three years ago.

While Freese was having the best month of his career in 2011, Trout was coming off his season in the Double-A Texas League. Trout spent just 20 more games in the minors before heading to Orange County to stay.

”I don’t think I need to say anything to Mike Trout,” Freese said. ”He’s been in the spotlight since Day One, and he’s going to be in it again. The game is better with Mike Trout in the postseason. I think we all understand that, and it’s exciting to get him in there and get Albert back in there.”

Indeed, the big-budget Angels are getting a return on their lavish investments in Trout, Pujols and Josh Hamilton, who will return to the Angels’ lineup for the opener, batting seventh and playing left field after missing 21 of the last 22 games with injuries.

Angels ace Jered Weaver (18-9, 3.59 ERA) starts against Kansas City’s Jason Vargas (11-10, 3.71), who pitched for Los Angeles last year. The pitchers have been close friends since their days at nearby Long Beach State — but before their families take their joint vacation already planned for this winter, they’ll attempt to keep their clubs rolling.

”There aren’t very many players like (Trout) that come along,” Vargas said. ”(But) you’re going to have to negotiate that whole lineup, and if you think about one hitter, your work is going to be cut out for you.”

The Royals’ long-awaited playoff return has already been memorable. Kansas City is still buzzing after the club’s rally from a late four-run deficit and another 12th-inning hole for a dramatic 9-8 victory over Oakland on Tuesday night.

The Royals celebrated with champagne and goggles after a game that lasted nearly five hours, but they were clear-headed and clear-eyed by the time they arrived Wednesday for a light workout.

”Not a lot of sleep, but that’s OK,” left fielder Alex Gordon said. ”We’ll take the lack of sleep for moving on and coming to L.A.”

Kansas City realizes the stiff challenge posed by the Angels, who overcame numerous pitching injuries with a boost from the majors’ most productive offense. The Royals struggled to score all season, but made up for it with steady starting pitching and a dynamic bullpen, which means the ALDS matches strengths against strengths.

If the Royals hope to return to raucous Kauffman Stadium with some of the momentum still intact from their win over the Athletics, an early victory in Anaheim would be helpful. Manager Ned Yost is confident that his raw roster gained experience quickly this week.

”You couldn’t have had a more charged atmosphere, more pressure, more intensity than we had,” Yost said. ”Our backs couldn’t be more against the wall than being four runs down against Jon Lester in the eighth inning, and they didn’t fold. They kept fighting and getting after it and found a way to win.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Royals had waited 29 years to reach the postseason. They weren’t going down without a fight.

Salvador Perez singled down the left-field line with two outs in the 12th inning, allowing Christian Colon to score from second base and giving the long-suffering Royals a 9-8 victory over the Oakland Athletics in a wild AL wild-card game Tuesday night.

Quite a start to October baseball — even if this one appeared to be over in September with plenty of time to spare.

The A’s raced out to a 7-3 lead by the sixth inning, but the Royals countered with three runs in the eighth. Nori Aoki’s sacrifice fly off Sean Doolittle in the ninth forced extra innings.

The teams kept trading blows over the next couple innings, as midnight came and went on the East Coast and the tension continued to build. Brandon Finnegan finally cracked after tossing two scoreless innings, but the Royals were there to pick up their pitching one last time.

Eric Hosmer hit a rocket to the wall in left field off Dan Otero for a leadoff triple in the 12th, and Colon hit an infield chopper that he beat out for a tying single. That set the stage for Perez, who lined a pitch from Jason Hammel just inside the third-base line to send the Royals pouring out of their dugout in a mad celebration.

The long-suffering franchise hadn’t played in the postseason since beating St. Louis in the 1985 World Series, and the excitement the permeated the city might best be summed up by a statement posted by the Kansas City Police on Twitter in about the 10th inning: “We really need everyone to not commit crimes and drive safely right now. We’d like to hear the Royals clinch.”

They finally did it in a thrilling start to baseball’s playoffs.

For the Oakland, it was one final collapse in a season full of them. The club that once had the best record in baseball wilted over the second half of the season, and needed a victory on the final day of the regular season just to squeeze into the playoffs.

They had chances to put all that in the past. Instead, it will be dragged up for years.

A much-anticipated pitching showdown between Oakland ace Jon Lester and Kansas City counterpart James Shields instead turned into a high-scoring game and a battle of attrition between their bullpens.

Brandon Moss helped the A’s strike first, belting a two-run homer in the first inning and a three-run shot in the fifth. The Royals countered by playing small ball, stealing seven bases to tie a postseason record previously shared by the 1907 Chicago Cubs and 1975 Cincinnati Reds, according to STATS.

Kansas City clawed back from a four-run deficit over the final two innings.

The impassioned play by a scrappy bunch of Royals that have rarely tasted success energized a sellout crowd that had been pining for postseason baseball since the 1985 World Series.

Then again, maybe it was the crowd that energized the Royals.

Oakland had built a big lead after the fifth inning, and Lester — long a thorn in the side of Kansas City — had started to hit his stride. But A’s manager Bob Melvin opted to send him out for the eighth inning, and the Royals finally got Lester into a real jam.

Luke Gregerson entered in relief but failed to provide much. By the time he struck out Perez and Omar Infante to leave runners on second and third, the A’s four-run lead had become one.

Doolittle tried to finish the game off in the ninth, but he served up a leadoff single to pinch-hitter Josh Willingham. Pinch-runner Jarrod Dyson was sacrificed to second, and then brashly stole third base, allowing him to score on Aoki’s sacrifice fly to right field.

It was the third time in the last three seasons Doolittle has blown a postseason save.

By that point, a series of blunders by the Royals and manager Ned Yost had become moot.

Sean Doolittle tried to finish the game off in the ninth, but he gave up a bloop single to pinch-hitter Josh Willingham. Pinch-runner Jarrod Dyson was sacrificed to second and then brashly stole third, allowing him to score on Aoki’s sacrifice fly to deep right field.

It was the third time in the last three seasons that Doolittle has blown a postseason save.

By that point, a series of blunders by the Royals and manager Ned Yost had become moot.

The first occurred in the first inning, when slow-footed designated hitter Billy Butler was caught wandering off first base on an attempted steal with a runner on third. Eric Hosmer broke late for the plate and was thrown out easily to end the inning.

In the sixth, Yost yanked Shields — the ace of his staff — and called on Yordano Ventura. The rookie promptly served up Moss’ go-ahead, three-run homer.

All that was forgotten as midnight approached at Kauffman Stadium. And now, none of it will be remembered after one of the most dramatic games in franchise history.

UP NEXT

Yost has refused to discuss who he might pitch in the opener against the Angels. The two best bets are vastly different options: Danny Duffy is a young, hard-throwing left-hander who plays on passion, Jeremy Guthrie is a cerebral right-hander that relies on guile.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Athletics catcher Geovany Soto left the game after hurting his left thumb tagging Hosmer at the plate to end the first inning. Soto started over Norris despite never having caught Lester because he’s better at handling the running game. The Royals led the majors with 153 stolen bases this season, and they had seven more Tuesday night — all but one after Soto left the game.

— Associated Press —