(MENAFN- Arab Times) KANSAS CITY Missouri Oct 16 (Agencies): The Kansas City Royals are World Series-bound for the first time since their championship season in 1985 after becoming the first MLB team to open a postseason with an 8-0 record on Wednesday. The Royals extended their perfect postseason run with a 2-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in Game Four of the best-of-seven American League Championship Series.
'It's been an amazing run' left fielder Alex Gordon said on the field moments after closer Greg Holland got J.J. Hardy to ground out to third base for the final out. 'Today (was the) same old story good pitching good defense and scratch out a win. Good teams find ways to win and that's what we did.' Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain was named the Most Valuable Player of the ALCS after batting .533 and playing some stunning defense. Kansas City will next play the winner of the National League Championship Series between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals. Two first-inning runs was all Kansas City needed as starting pitcher Jason Vargas struck out six Orioles batters and allowed one run on two hits in 5-1/3 innings before handing it over to the Royals' vaunted bullpen. 'We know once we have the lead we've got the best pitching staff and best bullpen around' said Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer quickly reminding everyone that the season was not over. 'We're not done yet.' Before the 2014 Major League Baseball season Kansas City had not returned to the playoffs since winning the World Series 29 years ago the longest streak without appearing in the postseason in the four major North American sports. And they did not even win their division this season being forced to run the gauntlet of a one-off wild-card elimination game against the Oakland Athletics to reach the American League Division Series. After erasing a four-run deficit en route to sealing a thrilling win over Oakland in extra innings the Royals swept the top-seeded Los Angeles Angels in a best-of-five series before knocking off the American League East champion Orioles. Not that the Orioles went quietly. All four games were decided by two runs or less as the Royals won by a total of only six runs. 'You saw how close the games were. It's more a testament to what they did. They played great defensively and I congratulate them' said Baltimore manager Buck Schowalter. 'There are going to be 29 disappointed teams when the season's over.' Kansas City's runs in the first came on a fielder's choice by Eric Hosmer. Alcides Escobar slid home and forced an error on catcher Caleb Joseph. Nori Aoki also scored on the play while Hosmer reached second. Baltimore's only run came in the third inning when Ryan Flaherty homered to right. Vargas got the win while Miguel Gonzales took the loss despite only giving up four hits and two runs in 5-2/3 innings. Giants 6 Cards 4 In San Francisco San Francisco rallied from a three-run deficit Wednesday to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-4 and move to the brink of winning their Major League Baseball playoff series. The Giants seized a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven National League final and could advance with a victory in game five Thursday at San Francisco. The winner will face the American League champion Kansas City Royals in the World Series championship showdown starting Tuesday. The Cardinals have never recovered from a 3-1 deficit to win a best-of-seven playoff series. But the Giants know it can be done having rallied from the deficit to beat St. Louis on the way to the 2012 World Series crown. 'It's very important' Giants catcher Buster Posey said. 'We were down 3-1 in St. Louis two years ago. We've got that fresh in our mind. We'll have a tough game tomorrow.' This will be the fifth year in a row that either the Giants or Cardinals have played in the World Series. San Francisco won the crown in 2010 and 2012 while St. Louis captured the 2011 title and lost last year's World Series to the Boston Red Sox. Trailing 4-3 entering the bottom of the sixth inning the Giants tagged Cardinals relief pitcher Marco Gonzales for three runs to seize command. San Francisco pinch-hitter Juan Perez walked in the sixth and took second on Brandon Crawford's single. Both runners advanced on Matt Duffy's sacrifice bunt and Gregor Blanco chopped a ground ball to St. Louis first baseman Matt Adams that allowed Perez to race home and beat the throw to the plate with the tying run. Joe Panik followed with a ground out to Adams who tried in vain for an inning-ending throw out of Blanco at second base but instead could only watch Crawford scamper home from third with the go-ahead run for the Giants. When Posey followed with a single to left field Blanco raced home and San Francisco stretched the lead to the final margin. 'Any time you can put pressure on the defense you have the opportunity for good things to happen' Posey said. 'We had the opportunity to get a couple of runs tonight that got us back into the game.' St. Louis put potential tying runners on base in the seventh and brought the tying run to the plate in the eighth and ninth innings but never could produce a run-scoring hit. Matt Holliday struck out in the ninth to end the game. 'We got the lead early with a chance to take the game' Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. 'It just didn't work out.' St. Louis opened the scoring in the first inning when Matt Carpenter doubled and scored on an Adams single to left field. The Giants answered in their half of the first as Blanco doubled took third base on Panik's single and scored on Posey's sacrifice fly out to centerfield. But the Cardinals responded in the second as Kolten Wong doubled and scored on A.J. Pierzynski's single up the middle to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead. The Cardinals stretched their edge to 4-1 in the third as Matt Holliday opened with a double took third on an Adams single and scored when Jhonny Peralta grounded into a double play. Wong followed with a solo homer to give the visitors a three-run advantage. But San Francisco fought back in the third to pull within 4-3. Joaquin Arias singled to open took second and third on outs and scored when Posey singled to left field. Posey took second when Pablo Sandoval walked and scored himself on a single by Hunter Pence. 'A lot of those innings are set up with good at bats early' Pence said. 'When you set it up you have opportunities to score.' In all the opening batters in each half of the first three innings recorded base hits a first in major league playoff history.
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