By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Eric Hosmer got his souvenir home run ball back while he stood on the field for a postgame interview, Angel Stadium’s silence broken only by a small band of blue-clad fans chanting “Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!”

Hosmer savored the moment, realizing that almost nobody expected the unassuming Kansas City Royals to be collecting keepsakes and plotting playoff sweeps a few days ago.

But with three extra-inning wins in four remarkable days, the long-downtrodden Royals have climbed from the depths of a 29-year playoff absence to the brink of the AL Championship Series.

Hosmer hit a two-run homer in the 11th inning, and Kansas City took a 2-0 lead in the AL Division Series with a 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night.

“It’s a huge sigh of relief, and it’s a big swing for the guys,” Hosmer said.

Alex Gordon had an early run-scoring single and Salvador Perez added an RBI infield single in the 11th for the Royals, who became the first team in major league history to win three straight extra-inning playoff games. In its first postseason appearance since 1985, Kansas City is on a playoff roll — and the majors’ best regular-season team has not been able to stop it.

“That’s what the cool part of this has been — everyone has had their time,” said Hosmer, who had three hits and scored two runs. “They’ve had their moment when they’ve made a big play or stepped up and did something big. A lot of the times, it was with our back against the wall. Most of the time it was with our season on the line.”

Game 3 in the best-of-five series is Sunday in Kansas City, where Angels left-hander C.J. Wilson faces James Shields.

After two wins in the majors’ toughest ballpark for visitors, the Royals have the once-mighty Angels on the edge of elimination, largely thanks to a pitching staff that has limited baseball’s highest-scoring offense to just three runs in 22 innings.

The Royals finished last in the majors with only 95 regular-season homers, but they’ve won back-to-back playoff games on 11th-inning shots over the right-field wall at the Big A.

After 10 innings of intense baseball dominated by pitching and defense, Lorenzo Cain beat out a one-out infield single off losing pitcher Kevin Jepsen. Hosmer smacked a no-doubt homer to right field, setting off a celebration for several dozen blue-clad Royals fans in a sea of red at the Big A.

Albert Pujols had a tying RBI single in the sixth for the Angels, but they’ve been mostly helpless against the Royals. Los Angeles, which led the big leagues with 98 wins, has just 10 hits in the series — none by Mike Trout or Josh Hamilton.

Only eight teams in major league history have rallied to win a playoff series after losing the first two games.

“There are some guys that right now aren’t attacking the ball where they can for various reasons. There is not one cure-all that’s going to get everybody swinging the bat,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “We haven’t done a lot of the things we’ve done during the season, and we put a lot of pressure on our pitching staff.”

Trout got a chance to help in the 11th after second baseman Omar Infante made a throwing error on Kole Calhoun’s two-out grounder. But the AL MVP favorite struck out against Greg Holland, finishing his second straight 0-for-4 night in his first playoff series.

Going back to the regular season, the Angels have lost five straight games for the first time all season.

“This series is not over,” said Pujols, who is 1 for 8. “Obviously, you don’t want to go down 0-2 and go to the other place, but anything can happen. Hopefully our bats get going. … We just need to catch some breaks. If we do, we’ll be fine.”

The Royals are the first team to play in three consecutive extra-inning playoff games since the 1980 NLCS between Houston and Philadelphia, which had four straight. They followed up their 12-inning wild-card victory over Oakland with a series-opening win on Mike Moustakas’ 11th-inning homer, and Hosmer kept it going.

Brandon Finnegan pitched a hitless 10th for the Royals, and the 2014 first-round draft pick earned the win. Holland worked the 11th for his second save of the series.

Along with more lights-out pitching, strong defense again was a huge factor for the Royals.

After C.J. Cron’s leadoff double against Wade Davis in the eighth, Angels pinch-runner Collin Cowgill decided to test the arm of center fielder Jarrod Dyson, who had just entered the game. Dyson threw out Cowgill at third after catching Chris Iannetta’s fly to left-center.

“That’s huge. That changes momentum. That changes everything in a game right there,” Hosmer said. “That’s a big-time play.”

Two innings later, shortstop Alcides Escobar turned a tough double play after stretching high to glove an off-target throw.

In a matchup of impressive rookie starters, Yordano Ventura pitched seven innings of five-hit ball for the Royals, and Matt Shoemaker threw six innings of five-hit ball for Los Angeles.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Royals: RHP Kelvin Herrera has a flexor strain in his right forearm after throwing just five pitches in Game 1. The reliever will be re-evaluated when the teams get to Kansas City.

Angels: Hamilton went 0 for 4 with a double-play grounder to end the 10th, dropping to 0 for 9 in his first playoff series with Los Angeles. The slugger played just once in the final 22 games of the regular season due to upper-body injuries.

UP NEXT

Shields started the Royals’ wild-card playoff win Tuesday, so he’ll be on normal rest. Los Angeles is hoping for solid work from the up-and-down Wilson.

By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — When Mike Moustakas smacked a high fly into right field in the 11th inning, the Kansas City Royals’ No. 9 hitter had no idea whether it had enough juice to get out of the Big A.

“I knew I hit it pretty good, but that fence out there is pretty tall,” the Los Angeles born-and-bred slugger said.

Although this group of Royals only has two crazy games of playoff history, it’s becoming clear that good things happen to Kansas City in October.

The Royals went a few more extra innings, withstood a few more scares and figured out another dramatic way to win a playoff game — thanks to the local boy.

Moustakas homered leading off the 11th, and the Royals kept rolling in their first postseason in 29 years with a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels in their AL Division Series opener Thursday night.

Kansas City had managed just two baserunners since the fifth inning when 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.

“It’s probably the biggest one I’ve ever hit so far,” said Moustakas, who had dozens of friends and family members in the Royals’ tiny cheering section. “It felt really amazing.”

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.

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.

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.

“This is the type of game that we play,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “We don’t score a bunch of runs … so we have a lot of confidence in our pitching.”

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 up to end the game, capping his 0-for-5 return to the lineup.

“We had some guys in scoring position, just couldn’t get that one hit, especially late,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “Those guys hung in there and got the big outs and got the big hit late. So we hit two home runs to keep ourselves in the game, but outside of that, we didn’t really pressure those guys very much.”

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 a third baseman who grew up in the San Fernando Valley before making his big league debut and hitting his first homer in Anaheim three years ago.

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.

The Royals can’t match Los Angeles’ lineup 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.

“Lorenzo Cain is one of the best center fielders in baseball, and Aoki made some unbelievable plays,” Moustakas said. “We were able to cut their rallies down a little bit on some of the huge catches there in right field and center field, and hats off to those guys.”

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

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, a key member of Kansas City’s vaunted bullpen, will be re-evaluated Friday.

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 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.