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Kansas City, Mo. • In a perfect postseason for the Kansas City Royals, of course Mike Moustakas made that daring catch look so seamless.
Boosted by more sparkling defense, a dominant bullpen and another dose of small ball, suddenly the wild-card Royals are one win from the World Series.
Billy Butler drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning, and the Royals' steel-curtain relief corps shut down the Baltimore Orioles the rest of the way for a 2-1 win Tuesday night and a commanding 3-0 lead in the AL Championship Series.
"Just trying to find a way to win each night, no matter what, any way we can, just find a way to win," Moustakas said.
Moustakas made two marvelous plays at third base as Kansas City won its 10th straight postseason game, including all seven this year. With the Royals making their first playoff appearance in 29 years, the only thing that's slowed them City so far was a rainout Monday.
The Royals will send Jason Vargas to the mound for Game 4 on Wednesday, trying to advance to their first World Series since 1985. Miguel Gonzalez will try to help the Orioles stave off elimination.
Of the previous 33 teams to trail 3-0 in a major league postseason series, only Boston in the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees rallied to win, STATS said.
Smooth with gloves all season, the Royals flashed even more leather to stop the Orioles.
Moustakas made a diving grab to rob Pearce of a single in the fourth. That was a sharp play a couple innings, he turned in a spectacular one.
In the sixth, Moustakas tracked a popup by Adam Jones into foul territory, steadied himself at a railing near the dugout, then extended himself to catch the ball and tumbled into the stands.
"I was trying to find the fence, and I saw it was going to be a little out of my reach, so I crawled over and reached and caught it, and the people in dugout suite picked me up and kind of helped me," Moustakas said.
"It was pretty cool. A lot of credit goes to those people over there for not letting me fall and hurt myself," he said.
The blue-clad crowd rose to its feet to give Moustakas a rousing cheer, and many fans were still standing when Butler drove in the go-ahead run in the bottom half of the inning.
The Royals' Jeremy Guthrie and Orioles' Wei-Yin Chen hooked up in a tense pitching duel for five innings.
Chen gave up a leadoff single to Nori Aoki in the sixth. Eric Hosmer followed with a one-out single to put runners on the corners, and Orioles manager Buck Showalter brought in hard-throwing reliever Kevin Gausman to face Butler.
The Royals' designated hitter sent a fly ball to left field for the tiebreaking run just the latest example of Kansas City doing the little things right. One of the best bullpens in baseball took care of the rest the relievers combined with Guthrie to retire Baltimore's final 16 batters.
After winning pitcher Jason Frasor breezed through the sixth, Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis nailed down the next two innings. All-Star closer Greg Holland worked a perfect ninth for his third save of the series, setting off a wild celebration in the stands.
ALCS schedule
Wednesday • Baltimore at Kansas City, 2 p.m., TBS* Friday • Kansas City at Baltimore, 6 p.m., TBS* Saturday • Kansas City at Baltimore, 6 p.m., TBS * if necessary
Royals 2, Orioles 1
Baltimore AB R H BI BB SO Avg.
Markakis rf 4 0 1 0 0 0 .267
De Aza lf 4 0 0 0 0 0 .308
A.Jones cf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .214
N.Cruz dh 4 0 0 0 0 0 .308
Pearce 1b 4 1 1 0 0 0 .077
J.Hardy ss 3 0 1 1 0 0 .182
Flaherty 3b 1 0 0 0 2 1 .333
Hundley c 3 0 0 0 0 2 .143
Schoop 2b 3 0 0 0 0 1 .100
Totals 30 1 3 1 2 5
Kansas City AB R H BI BB SO Avg.
A.Escobar ss 4 0 1 0 0 0 .214
Aoki rf 3 0 1 0 0 0 .333
1-J.Dyson pr-cf 1 1 0 0 0 1 .000
L.Cain cf-rf 4 1 2 0 0 1 .667
Hosmer 1b 3 0 2 0 0 0 .417
B.Butler dh 1 0 0 1 1 0 .300
A.Gordon lf 3 0 0 1 0 1 .273
S.Perez c 3 0 0 0 0 0 .091
Infante 2b 3 0 1 0 0 1 .273
Moustakas 3b 3 0 0 0 0 1 .273
Totals 28 2 7 2 1 5
Baltimore 010 000 000 1 3 0
Kansas City 000 101 00x 2 7 0
1-ran for Aoki in the 6th.
LOBBaltimore 4, Kansas City 4. 2BPearce (1), J.Hardy (1). RBIsJ.Hardy (1), B.Butler (3), A.Gordon (5). SFB.Butler.
Runners left in scoring positionBaltimore 1 (Schoop) Kansas City 2 (S.Perez 2). RISPBaltimore 1 for 3 Kansas City 0 for 2.
Runners moved upHundley, A.Gordon. GIDPMoustakas.
DPBaltimore 1 (Schoop, J.Hardy, Pearce).
Baltimore IP H R ER BB SO ERA
W.Chen L, 0-1
51⁄3 7 2 2 1 4 3.38
Gausman 22⁄3 0 0 0 0 1 0.00
Kansas City IP H R ER BB SO ERA
Guthrie 5 3 1 1 2 2 1.80
Frasor W, 1-0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.00
K.Herrera 1 0 0 0 0 2 0.00
W.Davis 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.00
G.Holland S, 3-3
1 0 0 0 0 0 3.00
Inherited runners-scoredGausman 2-1.
UmpiresHome, Joe West First, Ron Kulpa Second, Mark Wegner Third, Brian Gorman Right, Marvin Hudson Left, Dan Iassogna.
T2:55. A40,183 (37,903).