Royals beat Orioles, halfway to baseball World Series

Alcides Escobar and Lorenzo Cain drove in ninth-inning runs to lift Kansas City over Baltimore 6-4, giving the Royals command of their Major League Baseball playoff series.
The visiting Royals moved halfway to their first World Series since 1985, seizing a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven American League final, which shifts to Kansas City for game three on Monday.
The Orioles, in the league final for the first time since 1997, seek their first World Series berth since winning the 1983 title while the Royals, who this year ended a 29-year playoff drought, seek their first World Series since taking the 1985 title.
The Royals won the opener 8-6 in 10 innings Friday, becoming the first team in major league history with four extra-inning playoff wins in one year.
But deadlocked into the ninth inning for the second night in a row, the Royals didn't need to go past regulation play to defeat Baltimore again.
Omar Infante opened the ninth with an infield single, took second on a sacrifice bunt by Mike Moustakas and scored on Escobar's double down the right-field line to give the Royals a 5-4 lead.
A fielding error by Orioles third baseman Ryan Flaherty allowed Jarrod Dyson to reach first and Escobar to take third and Cain followed with a single to left to plate Escobar and give the Royals an insurance run.
A two-out single by Nelson Cruz brought the tying run to the plate for the Orioles in the bottom of the ninth, but Steve Pearce struck out to end the final Baltimore threat.
- Jones, Moustakas homer -
Adam Jones had blasted a two-run homer into the left-field seats in the third inning to lift the Orioles level at 3-3. He had also sparked Baltimore with a diving catch to rob Nori Aoki of a base hit earlier in the inning.
But Moustakas, whose two-run homer in the 10th inning provided the Royals' winning margin in game one, responded by swatting a solo homer into the right-field stands with two outs in the fourth to put Kansas City back on top.
It was the fourth homer of the playoffs for Moustakas, matching a Royals record.
Baltimore equalized again at 4-4 in the fifth as Alejandro De Aza hit a one-out single to right, took third on Jones' single to right and scored when Cruz hit a ground ball to the shortstop and the Royals could not turn a double play.
The game stayed deadlocked from there until late, although the Orioles loaded the bases in the seventh only to have Pearce and J.J. Hardy each fly out to end the threat.
The Royals had grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning as Aoki singled to left field, Cain followed with a double to right and both of them scored on Eric Hosmer's single over the shortstop.
Baltimore pulled within 2-1 in the second after Kansas City pitcher Yordano Ventura walked three of the first four batters he faced and Steve Pearce scored from third on Caleb Joseph's sacrifice fly.
But the Royals answered in the third, Cain beating out a close throw at first base for an infield single, then taking third on a Hosmer single and scoring on Billy Butler's double down the rightfield line, Kansas City having hammered seven hits before Baltimore managed one.
Source: AFP