KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The raucous roar at Kauffman Stadium swelled with every batter in the second inning and then got louder the rest of the night.

As bouncers rolled by infielders and bloops dropped in front of outfielders, it became clear this World Series was headed to a climactic Game 7 — just like the one 29 years ago when the Kansas City Royals won their only title.

Lorenzo Cain looped a two-run single — one of eight Royals to get hits in a seven-run second inning — and Eric Hosmer chopped a two-run double over shortstop as the Royals battered the San Francisco Giants 10-0 Tuesday night to tie the Series at three games apiece.

Pitching with the initials of late St. Louis outfielder Oscar Taveras on his cap, 23-year-old rookie Yordano Ventura allowed three hits over seven innings for his first Series win.

“Guys stepped up in a big way tonight,” Cain said.

Jeremy Guthrie starts Wednesday night for Kansas City and Tim Hudson for San Francisco in a rematch of Game 3, won by Kansas City 3-2. Hudson, 39, will become the oldest Game 7 starter in Series history.

Lurking is Madison Bumgarner, ready to pitch in relief after suffocating the Royals on a total of one run in winning Games 1 and 5.

“We’re confident,” the Royals’ Billy Butler said. “Jeremy, every time out, gives us a chance to win.”

Kansas City can be comfortable in this bit of history: Home teams have won nine straight Game 7s in the Series, including the Royals’ 11-0 rout of St. Louis in 1985, since Pittsburgh’s victory at Baltimore in 1979. And the Giants have lost all four of their World Series finales pushed to the limit.

“This club’s so resilient. They’re so tough. They’ll put this behind them,” San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said. “You’ve come back against the odds, and you can do it again.”

Teams with the home-field advantage have won 23 of the last 28 titles, including five in a row. This Series has followed the exact pattern of the only other all-wild card matchup in 2002, when the Giants won the opener, fell behind 2-1, took a 3-2 lead and lost the last two games at Anaheim.

Ventura escaped his only trouble in the third, when he walked the bases loaded with one out and then got Buster Posey to ground a 97 mph fastball into a double play. Ventura threw fastballs on 81 of 100 pitches, reaching up to 100 mph, and worked around five walks. Royals manager Ned Yost was able to rest the hard-throwing back of his bullpen: Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis enter Game 7 with two days off and closer Greg Holland with three.

“This keeps all our big guns fresh and ready to tomorrow,” Yost said.

In a Series marked by blowouts — the first in which five games were decided by five runs or more — Kansas City out-hit the Giants 15-6 Tuesday. All nine Royals had hits by the third inning, matching the mark set by Arizona against the Yankees in Game 6 in 2001.

Cain drove in three runs and was among six Royals with two hits each.

Mike Moustakas homered in the seventh against Hunter Strickland, ending a 36-inning homerless streak in the Series, the longest since 1945.

Peavy’s outing was the shortest for a Series starter since the Yankees’ David Wells got just three outs against the Marlins 11 years ago in Game 5, according to STATS.

Peavy was charged with five runs and six hits in 1 1-3 innings, leaving with a career Series record of 0-2 with a 9.58 ERA in three starts. His record at Kauffman Stadium is 1-7 with a 7.28 ERA.

San Francisco had scored 15 straight runs entering the night, but the Royals bludgeoned Peavy and Yusmeiro Petit in a 32-minute bottom of the second to take a 7-0 lead.

Singles by Alex Gordon and Salvador Perez put runners on the corners, and Moustakas grounded a double over the first-base bag, past Brandon Belt and down the right-field line for a 1-0 lead.

Peavy struck out Omar Infante and, in the night’s key play, Alcides Escobar hit a bouncer to Belt. With Peavy yelling “Home!” Belt checked Perez at third and then tried to out-race Escobar to first base rather than throw to second baseman Joe Panik, who already was at the base.

Escobar slid past Belt’s failed tag attempt and into first to reach on the infield hit, and Nori Aoki chased Peavy after 42 pitches with a single to left.

Petit, who had pitched 12 scoreless postseason innings coming in, allowed Cain’s blooped single to shallow right and advanced the runners with a wild pitch. Hosmer chopped a ball that hopped over shortstop Brandon Crawford for a double that made it 6-0 and scored on Butler’s double for a 7-0 lead.

Cain added an RBI double off Jean Machi in the third, and Escobar’s run-scoring double in the fifth made it 9-0.

HOME COOKING

Home teams are 23-3 in Games 6 and 7 combined since 1982. The last eight home teams that won Game 6 to even the Series also went on to win Game 7, and no road team has lost Game 6 and rebounded to win the title since the 1975 Cincinnati Reds at Boston’s Fenway Park

MOMENT OF SILENCE

There was a moment of silence before the game in honor of Taveras, the 22-year-old killed in an automobile accident Sunday in the Dominican Republic. Ventura, a fellow Dominican who knew him well, wrote “RIP O.T (hash)18” in silver marker on the left side of his cap.

UP NEXT

Giants: Hudson allowed three runs and four hits in 5 2-3 innings in Game 3.

Royals: Guthrie on Game 7: “My memories of a Game 7 probably go back to Jack Morris, `91,” he said. “I was 12 years old, so certainly could appreciate the effort that he gave and the magnitude of the game, to be able to pitch like he did and win the World Series.”

— Associated Press —

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — With every pitch, Madison Bumgarner etched his place among the World Series greats.

The long, tall lefty kept slinging away and put the San Francisco Giants just one win from yet another championship, throwing a four-hitter to beat the Kansas City Royals 5-0 Sunday night for a 3-2 Series edge.

Hardly menacing on the mound, Bumgarner was simply untouchable — again — as “MVP! MVP!” chants broke out in the late innings.

And by the time the 25-year-old from Hickory, North Carolina, closed out his second win in a week, he had evoked memories of Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Curt Schilling and the top October aces of all time.

Joined them, and maybe even passed them.

Who else has gone 4-0 in four World Series starts with an 0.29 ERA? Throw in only 12 hits in 31 innings, along with 27 strikeouts, and that adds up to the very definition of Big-Game Pitcher.

“He’s so fun to watch. He’s always fun to watch,” teammate Brandon Crawford said. “In the postseason, you could look at him and he looks like he’s just pitching in the middle of June, like it’s no big deal. He takes the pressure off of everybody else. We just feed off of him.”

On this evening, he fanned eight without a walk and never was in trouble, becoming the first pitcher to toss a World Series shutout since Josh Beckett’s clinching gem for the Florida Marlins in 2003 at Yankee Stadium.

The Giants’ work isn’t done yet. To lock up their third crown in five years, they’ll need to win in Kansas City.

Jake Peavy gets the first chance to seal it for San Francisco when he starts Game 6 at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday night against rookie Yordano Ventura.

If the Giants don’t win then, there was always this possibility: Bumgarner out of the bullpen in Game 7.

Hunter Pence once again was in the middle of things for the Giants. He singled off James Shields in the second and scored on a groundout by Crawford, who finished with three RBIs.

Later, the enigmatic Pence accidentally threw his bat past the mound while striking out, and seemed to apologize to Shields. Pence added another hit in a three-run eighth, making him 9-for-19 in the five games.

Postseason star Pablo Sandoval also singled twice. Juan Perez broke it open with a two-run double off the top of the center-field fence in the eighth off Wade Davis and scored on a single by Crawford.

Since trailing 4-1 in Game 4, the Giants have responded with 15 straight runs. San Francisco won that game, putting aside concern that Bumgarner should’ve been moved up to pitch on short rest.

Bumgarner won for the fourth time in this postseason, and this blanking bookended the four-hit shutout he threw at Pittsburgh in the NL wild-card game. Durable, he’s thrown 47⅔ innings this October, trailing just Schilling’s 48⅓⅓ in 2001 for the most in a single postseason.

Given an early lead, Bumgarner was in control. He surely didn’t need much of a cushion, and looked even better than he did in winning the opener in Kansas City.

And on the rare occasion when the 6-foot-5 Bumgarner made a mistake, failing to cover first base on a grounder to the right side, his defense bailed him out.

Toward the late innings, it appeared that only a lightning strike could rescue the Royals, perhaps a home run out of nowhere. Not happening — this was the third straight game without either team hitting a homer, the longest streak in the World Series since 1948 when the Boston Braves and Cleveland began with a three-game drought, STATS said.

Exactly why the man nicknamed MadBum is so dominant isn’t easily apparent. Royals cleanup man Eric Hosmer said before the game that Bumgarner’s “cross-body” delivery is tough to pick up.

Bumgarner definitely has an impressive whip, along with an imposing WHIP in the World Series. His walks-plus-hits ratio per inning is incredible.

Bumgarner certainly excels at keeping hitters swinging at shadows by changing speeds. Kansas City batters chased balls that bounced as well as high ones out of the strike zone.

After Salvador Perez led off the second with a single — he homered in Game 1 for the lone run off Bumgarner — the slow-walking lefty who never seems to be in a hurry made quick work of the Royals.

Bumgarner struck out the next three batters, all swinging. He was at his best against pesky Omar Infante on three pitches: a 76 mph curve, a fastball at 91 and a slider at 86.

About the only thing Bumgarner didn’t do was get a hit. He takes pride in his plate prowess and launched four home runs this season, including two grand slams. Bumgarner went 0-for-4, leaving him hitless in 22 postseason at-bats.

Yep, he’s still got some work to do.

UP NEXT

Royals: Ventura will become the fourth rookie to start twice in a Series since 2000, joining John Lackey, Justin Verlander and Michael Wacha.

Giants: Peavy started in the World Series last year for the champion Boston Red Sox. He took the loss last week in Game 2, and is 1-4 with a 7.05 ERA in eight career postseason starts.

STATS

Of the 41 previous instances the World Series was tied at 2 in the best-of-seven format, the Game 5 winner has won the title 27 times.

— Associated Press —

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Sparkling defense, a stingy bullpen and just enough timely hitting. That winning formula of fundamental baseball put the Kansas City Royals ahead in the World Series.

Jeremy Guthrie outpitched fellow World Series newcomer Tim Hudson, four Royals relievers combined on four hitless innings and Kansas City beat the San Francisco Giants 3-2 Friday night for a 2-1 lead in the Fall Classic.

“This is the way our games have gone all year,” said Royals manager Ned Yost, who made several lineup changes that paid off. “I’m getting really good at protecting a one-run lead because a lot of times that’s exactly what we have to deal with.

“But I have the necessary tools to be able to do that. It’s not me doing it. It’s the guys that we put out there that are doing it. We have the type of pitchers in our bullpen that can accomplish that,” he said.

Alex Gordon hit a run-scoring double for his first hit of the Series in 10 at-bats and Lorenzo Cain made two slick grabs in right field as the Royals backed Guthrie with nifty glove work. All night long, Kansas City looked perfectly comfortable playing in the tricky territory at unfamiliar AT&T Park.

Eric Hosmer had a sixth-inning RBI single in an 11-pitch at-bat against lefty Javier Lopez for his first World Series hit — on his 25th birthday.

Cain drove in the first run with a groundout after Alcides Escobar’s leadoff double in the first.

Game 4 is Saturday night, with right-hander Ryan Vogelsong trying to get the Giants even against Kansas City lefty Jason Vargas.

“We’ve got to keep grinding. It’s going to be a tough series,” said Royals center fielder Jarrod Dyson, added to the starting lineup in Game 3.

Yost moved Cain from center field to right in place of Norichika Aoki for a defensive boost in the expansive outfield at AT&T Park. Cain chased down Buster Posey’s slicing line drive in the first for a pretty catch from his knees, then snagged Travis Ishikawa’s sinking liner in the second.

Gordon was moved up from sixth to second in the lineup and came through with his RBI double following Escobar’s single in the sixth.

On a night that began with a remembrance of late Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, Kansas City produced just enough run support even without designated hitter Billy Butler. The Series shifted to AT&T Park and National League rules for three games.

The Giants had their six-game home winning streak in the World Series snapped. The unbeaten run dated to the 2002 wild-card club of Barry Bonds and Co. that lost in seven games to the Angels.

The Royals seemed unfazed by the fanfare and tough conditions in improving to 5-0 on the road this postseason. Of the first 56 times the World Series was tied 1-all, the Game 3 winner went on to win in 37 of those instances and four of the last five.

A cast of Giants Hall of Famers were celebrated on the field in a star-studded pregame featuring a “Play Ball!” chant by Huey Lewis.

Pinch hitter Michael Morse hit an RBI double with none out in the sixth to chase Guthrie. Yost turned it over to his fantastic bullpen, and Kelvin Herrera immediately walked Gregor Blanco.

With the hard-throwing Herrera clocking 99-101 mph on the radar gun, Joe Panik had a tough time attempting a sacrifice bunt. His high-bouncing grounder still did the trick to advance both runners, and Posey pulled the Giants to 3-2 on a groundout.

Then, the Royals shut down San Francisco the rest of the way.

“I don’t know if there’s a better bullpen, because that seventh, eighth and ninth inning, and you get a tough go when you’re facing those guys,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “Hopefully you get some runs early, but Guthrie did a great job on us.”

Herrera worked 1 1/3 innings, rookie Brandon Finnegan got two outs in his World Series debut, and Wade Davis pitched a 1-2-3 eighth. Greg Holland got three outs for a save.

The four hitless innings of relief were the most in the World Series in 22 years.

“Our bullpen’s been lights out. We’ve got 100 percent confidence in (those) guys getting their job done,” Dyson said. “From an offensive standpoint, we’re just trying to put runs on the board and get them in position.”

Guthrie, who attended nearby Stanford, retired 10 straight during one stretch and combined with Hudson to retire 20 in a row. That was the longest Series streak since the Yankees’ Don Larsen and the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Sal Maglie retired the first 23 batters during Larsen’s perfect game in 1956, according to STATS.

“What a gutsy performance, and that’s one of the performances we needed right now, to be able to take this first one here,” Royals teammate James Shields said. “He went out there and pitched his heart out. He did a phenomenal job tonight.”

As a gorgeous Bay Area afternoon turned into a breezy night along the water, the 39-year-old Hudson left in the sixth to a rousing ovation from the orange towel-twirling sellout crowd.

Hudson waited 16 years for his first World Series chance only to watch Alcides Escobar hit the game’s first pitch for a double. Escobar scored on Cain’s groundout, and Hudson settled in nicely after the second. The right-hander retired 12 in a row before Escobar’s one-out single through Hudson’s legs in the sixth. Gordon followed with an RBI double.

GUTHRIE’S MARK

In a quirky stat, Guthrie became the fifth starting pitcher in World Series history to not record a walk or a strikeout through five innings and the first since Hall of Famer Greg Maddux in Game 2 of the 1996 Series for Atlanta against the Yankees.

UP NEXT

Royals: Vargas, an 11-game winner who pitched the ALCS clincher against Baltimore, attended Game 1 of the Giants’ 2010 World Series at AT&T Park against Texas with his wife as a fan.

Giants: Vogelsong is the only pitcher to yield no more than one run in his first five postseason starts. That run ended in the NL Championship Series when Vogelsong allowed four runs in three innings of a no-decision against St. Louis. … San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said he and pitching coach Dave Righetti discussed going with ace lefty Madison Bumgarner in Game 4 on short rest if trailing — something they know he can handle physically despite his heavy workload.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Salvador Perez and the pesky Kansas City Royals fought back from a Game 1 flop to beat the San Francisco Giants’ brilliant bullpen and even the World Series.

Perez broke Game 2 open with a two-run double in a five-run sixth inning, and the Royals’ own cast of clutch relievers kept the Giants in check for a 7-2 victory Wednesday night that spiced things up as the Series shifts to San Francisco for the next three games.

Jeremy Guthrie will be on the mound Friday night for the Royals, who had won eight straight playoff games before a 7-1 loss in the opener. Tim Hudson will start for San Francisco.

The Royals had already pulled ahead 3-2 on Billy Butler’s RBI single in the sixth when Perez doubled into the left-field gap. Omar Infante followed with a two-run shot off Hunter Strickland, the fifth home run the feisty Giants reliever had allowed to 23 postseason batters.

Strickland appeared to mutter to himself as he stalked back to the mound, and Perez overheard him. The two exchanged words and players from both dugouts spilled onto the field. More streamed in from the outfield bullpens before order was finally restored.

Suddenly, a series that began with a sleepy blowout had some life.

Young flamethrower Yordano Ventura, with his 100 mph fastball singeing the brims of the Giants’ batting helmets, allowed just two runs while pitching into the sixth inning. The 23-year-old hardly looked like the first rookie to make a World Series start in Royals history, calmly working through a lineup that ravaged staff ace James Shields just 24 hours earlier.

The dynamic trio of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland did the rest.

Herrera got the final two outs of the sixth to escape a jam, two of his first three pitches clocking 101 mph on the radar gun. He also survived a shaky seventh that included a pair of walks before Davis locked down the eighth, striking out two in a perfect inning.

Greg Holland, who saved each game in the Royals’ sweep of Baltimore in the AL Championship Series, allowed a two-out single to Brandon Crawford before fanning Gregor Blanco to end the game.

The Giants’ only runs came on a homer by Blanco and a double by Brandon Belt, their streak of seven straight World Series wins ending on a crisp, breezy night.

Early on, though, it looked as if they could be heading back to the Bay Area with a big lead.

The fleet-footed Blanco silenced a rollicking sea of blue, becoming the 10th player to open a World Series game with a home run. He deposited Ventura’s 98 mph fastball in the bullpen in right field, just his 17th home run in more than 2,300 at-bats.

The crowd, energized from the moment that Hall of Famer George Brett delivered the ceremonial first pitch, was left waiting for something good to happen for the second straight night.

This time, the scrappy Royals gave it to them.

ALCS MVP Lorenzo Cain stretched a liner to left field into a two-out double later in the first, and Eric Hosmer walked on four pitches. Butler, Peavy’s long-time nemesis, then bounced a single past the outstretched glove of Crawford at shortstop to knot the game 1-all.

The Royals kept the pressure on in second. Infante doubled over the head of Travis Ishikawa in left field, and Escobar sliced a two-out double down the right-field line to give Kansas City a 2-1 lead, its first in the World Series since Game 7 in 1985.

The Giants, so accustomed to October baseball, still didn’t look rattled — even as Ventura kept pounding the strike zone with a steady dose of 100 mph fastballs.

Eventually, Pablo Sandoval sent a high fly to the warning track leading off the fourth, and a stiff wind blowing out to left turned Cain around. The ball caromed away for a double, and Belt drove in Sandoval with a double that bounced off Nori Aoki’s glove in right field.

The game was still knotted at 2 when the Royals got their first two batters aboard in the sixth. Giants manager Bruce Bochy finally pulled the fiery Peavy, hoping to play for matchups with his bullpen. Butler promptly hit a go-ahead single off Jean Machi, and Strickland came in two batters later to face Perez, whose homer in Game 1 represented the Royals’ only run.

From there, well, the Royals showed they still had plenty of fight left.

PANDA POWER

Sandoval has reached base safely in 25 consecutive playoff games. The only players to have done that more are Miguel Cabrera (31) and Chase Utley (27).

LINCECUM LEAVES

Two-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum worked 1 2-3 innings of relief before he appeared to hurt himself on a pitch with two outs in the eighth. Santiago Casilla replaced him.

UP NEXT

Giants: Hudson has appeared in 12 postseason games and started 11 of them, first with Oakland and then Atlanta. But he’s never been on the mound in the World Series. He shut down Washington in the NLDS, giving up one run in 7 1-3 innings, but struggled against St. Louis in the NLCS.

Royals: Guthrie, an 11-year veteran, did not pitch in the Royals’ sweep of the Angels in the ALDS. He made his first career postseason start in the ALCS against the Orioles, allowing one run on three hits over five innings in his first outing since Sept. 26.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants put a sudden stop to the Kansas City Royals’ perfect postseason roll.

Bumgarner pitched shutout ball into the seventh inning, Hunter Pence homered early and the Giants showed off their October poise, shutting down the Royals 7-1 Tuesday night in the World Series opener.

From the get-go, the Giants simply did everything right to win their seventh straight World Series game. There’s a reason Bumgarner and these guys in black and orange are trying for their third title in five years.

The Royals, meanwhile, looked nothing like the fresh team that had become baseball’s darlings by starting the playoffs with eight wins in a row — pitching, hitting and fielding all deserted them.

The fates seemed to change from the very first batter, in fact. Gregor Blanco led off with a soft line drive to center field and AL Championship Series MVP Lorenzo Cain charged, then backed off as the ball fell for a single. It would’ve taken a near miracle to catch it, but that’s the kind of play the Royals had been making on a routine basis.

Moments later, Pence’s homer highlighted a three-run burst in the first inning against James Shields. Nicknamed “Big Game James,” he once again failed to live up to that billing and left in the fourth when the Giants made it 5-0.

By then, Royals fans who had waited since 1985 for the Series to come to town had gone silent. Or, worse, they were booing while small “Let’s go, Giants!” chants echoed through Kauffman Stadium.

Just like that, what many figured would be a tight matchup had turned into a mismatch. And it was a good omen for the Giants — the Game 1 winner has won 15 of the last 17 World Series.

The Royals will try to get even in Game 2 on Wednesday night when rookie Yordano Ventura starts against veteran Jake Peavy.

Bumgarner added to his sparkling World Series resume, improving to 3-0 and extending his scoreless streak to 21 innings before Salvador Perez homered in the seventh.

The 25-year-old called MadBum by his teammates was in trouble only once. Down 3-0, the Royals loaded the bases with a two-out walk and cleanup man Eric Hosmer stepped to the plate, but grounded out on the first pitch.

Bumgarner went on to stretch his road postseason scoreless streak to a record 32 2-3 innings as the Giants cruised. He pitched three-hit ball for seven innings, struck out five and walked one.

Michael Morse, getting to play as the designated hitter in the AL park, had an RBI single that finished Shields, and reliever Danny Duffy walked Blanco with the bases loaded.

Rookie Joe Panik hit an RBI triple that bounced past usually reliable right fielder Nori Aoki in the seventh and scored on a single by October force Pablo Sandoval. The MVP of the 2012 World Series triumph, Sandoval also had an RBI double in the first that extended his postseason streak of reaching base to 24 straight games.

Pence also doubled and walked.

Before the game, the mood at the ballpark was positively giddy. Ushers greeted fans with “Welcome to the World Series!” and some hot-dog vendors high-fived each other behind the counter.

Yet the Giants wrecked that fun, and won for the 16th time in their last 18 postseason games.

The Royals had won 11 straight in the postseason dating to their 1985 championship run, one short of the record held by a pair of New York Yankees clubs.

But it was clear from the start that this would not be their night, and not even the little things went well.

Early in the game, Kansas City third base coach Mike Jirschele retrieved a foul ball and tried to flip it into the stands. Instead, his toss fell well short of reaching the seats.

UP NEXT

Giants: Peavy lost 12 straight decisions this season, spanning his July trade from Boston to the Giants. … The 33-year-old is 1-3 with a 7.03 ERA in seven postseason starts, including an outing for the Red Sox in last year’s World Series. He beat Washington in the NL Division Series and was pulled after four innings vs. St. Louis in the NL Championship Series. … Royals DH Billy Butler is 14 for 33 (.424) with three HRs off Peavy.

Royals: The 23-year-old Ventura will become the first rookie to start a World Series game at any position for the Royals. No Giants hitter has ever faced the right-hander with a 100 mph heater. … Ventura pitched well in a start vs. the Angels in the ALDS and struggled vs. Baltimore in an ALCS start.

NO REPLAY NEEDED

The first Series game in the expanded replay era didn’t require a single video review. But all six umpires quickly huddled to discuss a foul ball that glanced off Perez’s bat on a bounce, and got it right.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — James Shields led thousands of fans in a celebratory chant. Lorenzo Cain pranced along the warning track, cradling his newborn son. Ned Yost finally allowed himself to smile.

After nearly three decades spent as one of the game’s biggest laughingstocks, the Kansas City Royals are once again baseball royalty. They are headed to their first World Series since 1985, finishing a four-game sweep in the AL Championship Series with a 2-1 victory Wednesday over the Baltimore Orioles.

In a perfect postseason, the Royals are intent to relish every moment.

“It’s hard to explain,” said Cain, whose clutch hits and dramatic catches earned him the series MVP award. “We’re clicking at the right moment right now.”

There’s no doubt about that.

Now, the Royals will carry an 11-game playoff win streak into the World Series, one shy of the major league record. That includes their first eight this season, something that had never been done in postseason history. Kansas City beat Oakland in a 12-inning wild-card thriller to start things off, then swept the Los Angeles Angels in the Divisional Series.

Kansas City will open its first World Series since 1985 on Tuesday against the winner of the NLCS between the Giants and Cardinals. San Francisco leads that series 2-1.

Coincidentally, it was the Cardinals who the Royals beat for their only World Series title.

“It’s been an amazing run,” Royals outfielder Alex Gordon said. “It’s nothing better than when you win. Today, same old story: good pitching, good defense and scratch out a win.”

Same old story for the Orioles, too: Solid pitching, good defense — and just not enough offense. They managed seven hits over the last two games against Kansas City, resulting in the first sweep for the franchise in 21 postseason series.

“You saw how close the games were,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “It’s more a testament to what they did. They were playing great defensively.”

After holding the Orioles to three hits in Game 3, Jason Vargas and the Royals bullpen held them to four hits Wednesday night. Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis got the game to Greg Holland, who matched Dennis Eckersley’s record with his fourth save of the best-of-seven series.

Holland got J.J. Hardy to ground out to third base for the final out, and the Royals spilled onto the infield in a wild celebration. Fireworks shot over the crown-shaped scoreboard in center field, and a blue-clad sellout crowd that included Royals greats George Brett and Brett Saberhagen let out a roar while cars on nearby Interstate 70 honked their horns.

“That’s what you dream of as a kid,” Holland said. “Punch your ticket to the World Series, especially before your home crowd. These fans have been waiting a long time. They deserve it.”

The Orioles, meanwhile, will limp into the offseason after a 96-win season in which they overcame injuries and suspensions to several key players along the way.

“I think it’s not what we didn’t do. It’s more what they did,” said the Orioles’ Ryan Flaherty, whose home run represented their lone run. “We played good baseball.”

Making his first start in nearly two weeks, Vargas shut down the vaunted Orioles lineup in Game 4. The only damage he allowed came in the third inning, when Flaherty went deep.

By that point, the Royals had already manufactured a pair of runs.

Alcides Escobar singled off Orioles starter Miguel Gonzalez to open the game, and Nori Aoki was drilled on the right knee a couple pitches later. Yost then opted to bunt with Cain, one of his hottest hitters, to advance both of the runners.

It was a questionable decision so early in the game. But like almost every unorthodox move that Yost has made, it worked out perfectly — for the first sacrifice of Cain’s career.

Eric Hosmer followed with a chopping groundball, and first baseman Steve Pearce went home with it. Escobar slid safely and the ball bounded away from catcher Caleb Joseph, allowing Aoki to follow his teammate home and giving the scrappy, small-ball Royals a 2-0 lead.

After that, it was up to their defense and bullpen.

Escobar turned a pair of double plays early in the game to help Vargas escape jams, and Gordon made a spectacular catch while crashing into the left-field wall to rob Hardy of extra bases leading off the fifth inning. In the sixth, second baseman Omar Infante was in perfect position to snag Nelson Cruz’s line drive and leave runners on the corners.

Herrera breezed through the seventh and Davis handled the eighth, just as they have all season, and Holland slammed the door on his fourth save of the series.

And set off of a raucous celebration that had been 29 years in the making.

In the midst of it all was Yost, the often-criticized Royals manager who has guided a collection of budding young stars to baseball’s grandest stage. In doing so, Yost became the first manager in major league history to win his first eight postseason games.

Now, just four more wins stand in the way of an improbable World Series championship.

“These guys are willing to play selfless baseball where all they’re concentrating on is winning the game,” Yost said. “Nobody is looking to be a hero right now, they’re just looking to win a ballgame, and they’ve done a tremendous job.”

TIGHT GAMES

The Royals’ win was the 14th decided by one run this postseason, topping the record set in 2011 and tied last year. That includes the last two games of the ALCS.

STACKING UP

Kansas City did well this season against both potential World Series opponents.

The Royals swept a three-game series from the visiting Giants in August, beating Madison Bumgarner, Tim Hudson and Tim Lincecum. KC hasn’t played at San Francisco since 2005.

The Royals went 3-1 against St. Louis, sweeping two games at Busch Stadium and splitting back at Kauffman Stadium.

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Royals: The Royals are in the World Series for the third time in franchise history. “It’s been incredible to watch,” said Saberhagen, one of the star pitchers on the `85 title team.

Orioles: It’s on to the offseason for a team that overcame a series of injuries (Matt Wieters, Manny Machado) and suspensions (Chris Davis) to reach the ALCS. Baltimore still has not made it back to the World Series since 1983.

— Associated Press —