Kansas City one win from World Series

Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo.

The Kansas City Royals have embraced the bloop, bunt and sacrifice fly all postseason.

Add in more sparkling defense and that dominant bullpen, and the wild-card Royals are suddenly 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 bullpen 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.

Third baseman Mike Moustakas made two marvelous plays as the picture-perfect Royals won their 10th straight postseason game, including all seven this year. Making its first playoff appearance in 29 years, the only thing that’s slowed Kansas City so far was a rainout Monday.

Kansas City will send Jason Vargas to the mound for Game 4 today, trying to advance to its first World Series since 1985. Miguel Gonzalez will try to help the Orioles stave off elimination.

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.