The Kansas City Royals had waited 29 years to reach Major League's Baseball's playoffs and they fought hard to stay there on Tuesday, edging the Oakland Athletics 9-8 in a 12-inning postseason classic.
Salvador Perez singled down the left-field line with two outs in the 12th inning, allowing Christian Colon to score from second base and giving the long-suffering Royals victory in the American League wildcard game.
Kansas City progress to a best-of-five AL division series against the Los Angeles Angels, starting in California on Thursday.
The A's raced out to a 7-3 lead by the sixth inning, but the Royals countered with three runs in the eighth. Nori Aoki's sacrifice fly off Sean Doolittle in the ninth tied the game and forced extra innings.
Oakland went back ahead 8-7 in the top of the 12th but the Royals managed to respond.
In the bottom of the 12th, Eric Hosmer was the first batter up and hit a rocket to the wall in left field off Dan Otero for a triple. Colon followed with an infield chopper that gave him enough time to scramble to first base and Hosmer to make it to home plate for the tying run.
That set the stage for Perez, who lined a pitch from Jason Hammel just inside the third-base line to bring home Colon and end the game.
The Royals players poured out of their dugout in a justifiably mad celebration. The long-suffering franchise hadn't played in the postseason since winning the 1985 World Series.
For Oakland, it was one final collapse in a season full of them. The club that once had the best record of any team in the early months of the season wilted over the second half of the campaign, and needed a victory on the final day of the regular season just to squeeze into the playoffs.
A much-anticipated pitching showdown between Oakland ace Jon Lester and Kansas City counterpart James Shields instead turned into a high-scoring game and a battle of attrition between their bullpens.
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