Perez, Royals walk-off to Anaheim

Salvador Perez had struggled to put the bat on the ball in his first five plate appearances Tuesday. But none of that mattered after what he did in at bat No. 6.

Perez delivered a walk-off single in the bottom of the 12th inning as the Kansas City Royals defeated the Oakland A’s 9-8 in the American Wild Card Game at Kauffman Stadium.

Kansas City (90-73), appearing in the postseason for the first time since winning the 1985 World Series, will open the Division Series on the road Thursday against the American League West champion Los Angeles Angels.

Perez, the 24-year old Venezuelan catcher, had struck out twice and made three infield outs before coming to the plate against Jason Hammel in the 12th. Perez ripped a ball down the third-base line just out of the reach of Josh Donaldson and Christian Colon raced home with the winning run, setting off a raucous celebration for a fan base that had last watched a postseason victory on October 27, 1985 in game seven of the Fall Classic against the Cardinals.

Trailing 8-7 and with one out in the 12th, Eric Hosmer reached base for the fifth time in six trips, tripling to left-centerfield off Dan Otero. Colon hit a high chopper that Donaldson couldn’t make a play on and Hosmer raced home with the tying run. After Alex Gordon popped out on the only pitch thrown by southpaw Fernando Abad, Hammel relieved and on a pitch out, Colon stole second base thanks in large part to catcher Derek Norris dropping the ball.

Perez worked the count to 2-2, fouled off a fifth pitch, then hit the sixth pitch down the line and sent the Royals to Anaheim.

“We showed a lot of character, a lot of fight,” said Hosmer. “We just never quit.”

Oakland (88-75), which missed out on a chance to win its first playoff series since 2006, took an 8-7 lead in the top of the 12th when Alberto Callaspo delivered an opposite field single to score Josh Reddick.

Brandon Finnegan, who in June pitched in the College World Series for TCU after being drafted by the Royals earlier in the month, had been effective in relief, pitching two scoreless innings before walking Reddick to open the 12th. A Jed Lowrie sacrifice moved Reddick to second, and that chased Finnegan from the game.

Jason Frasor got ahead in the count 1-2 before surrendering Callaspo’s hit, but Frasor kept it a one-run game by striking out Norris and getting Nick Punto to pop out in foul territory. Frasor, who was making his first-ever postseason appearance after 647 regular season appearances in an 11-year career, picked up the victory.

Kansas City forced extra innings by scoring a run off Oakland closer Sean Doolittle in the bottom of the ninth.

Josh Willingham led off with an opposite field, bloop single and Jarrod Dyson pinch-ran and moved to second on a sacrifice. Dyson stole third base and scored on a sacrifice fly by Nori Aoki to tie things up at 7-7.

That completed a four-run rally by the hosts, who chased Oakland starter Jon Lester in the eighth with Lorenzo Cain’s RBI-single and when Hosmer drew a walk. Luke Gregerson relieved and allowed Billy Butler’s run-scoring single and later, Gregerson uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Hosmer to score and make it 7-6.

“This was the craziest game I’ve ever played (in),” said Hosmer, in his fourth year in the Royals’ organization.

Brandon Moss was the early hero for Oakland.

Moss, who the last time playing at Kauffman Stadium went 7-for-12 with four RBIs in an August series, faced reliever Yordano Ventura with two on and no outs in the sixth and crushed a 2-0 fastball over the 410-sign in dead-centerfield that turned a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 A’s lead.

Ventura allowed a single, then finally got the first out of the inning. Kelvin Herrera relieved and induced a foul pop out off the bat of Stephen Vogt, but Norris, Eric Sogard and Coco Crisp had consecutive singles, with Norris and Crisp’s hits delivering runs and Oakland led 7-3.

Ventura and Herrera were summoned from the bullpen after Royals manager Ned Yost made the decision to lift starter James Shields after a leadoff, broken-bat single by Sam Fuld and a walk to Donaldson on a borderline, 3-2 pitch, and just 86 pitches from the right-hander.

In the top of the first, Moss hit his first no-doubt home run, a two-run shot off Shields that put the visitors up 2-0.

After Lester had gotten a harmless fly out for the second out of the bottom of the first, he walked Hosmer on four pitches, then allowed an RBI-single to Butler that made it a 2-1 game. The Royals ran themselves out of the inning, though, when Butler got in a run down off first base and Hosmer broke for the plate and was caught stealing for the third out.

In the bottom of the third, Cain had an RBI-double and Hosmer gave the Royals the 3-2 lead a batter later with a bloop single.

Both starters settled in after that. Shields allowed just two singles between Moss’ first long ball and the sixth, and Lester retired 12 straight batters after Hosmer’s hit.