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Its been 29 long years since the Kansas City Royals have been in this position. Who can blame them for wanting to stick around a little longer? After one of the more thrilling games in baseball history the Royals continue their first postseason run since 1985 against Mike Trout and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Thursday in Game One of the American League Division Series at Angel Stadium. Kansas City outlasted Oakland in Tuesdays wild card game, as Salvador Perezs 12th-inning single scored Christian Colon to give the Royals a wild 9-8 come- from-behind victory in a contest that lasted 4 hours and 45 minutes. Thats the most incredible game that Ive ever been a part of, Royals manager Ned Yost said. Oakland had scored five times in the sixth to take a four-run lead, but the Royals crossed the plate four times in the final two innings to send the game to extra innings. The As then put themselves in front with a run in the top half of the 12th, only to see the Royals score twice in the bottom half to secure their first postseason win since 1985. Everyone is screaming at the top of their lungs, said Eric Hosmer, who scored the tying run in the 12th after a triple. I think we feed off their energy. You get a couple guys on base, you hear the crowd, everyone is on their feet like that, you feed off that energy. This team, this city, this crowd, everybody, theyve showed no quit. The victory may have taken Yost off the hook for his dubious use of the bullpen in what could have been a pivotal sixth inning. With starter James Shields at just 88 pitches, Yost opted to lift him after he put two runners on for rookie starter Yordano Ventura, who threw 73 pitches on Sunday, rather than Kelvin Herrera. Ventura proceeded to give up a three-run homer and before the inning was done, the Royals trailed, 7-3. You know, when we have these games, we map out our pitching, and we try to cover all scenarios. If something happens early, weve got (veteran starter Jeremy) Guthrie. If we get it past the fifth inning, were going with our power arms. ... We wanted to bring the gas for the sixth, and we wanted to bring the gas for the seventh with Herrera, Wade (Davis) and (Greg Holland) with a one-run lead. It just didnt work out. With Shields unavailable, the Royals will turn to veteran left-hander Jason Vargas, who will be making his first-ever postseason start against the team he pitched for last season. You know, I feel great, Vargas said, Its a lot of trust put in me, so I feel good about it. The fact that its a team that I played for before and played for last year, I think all of us have friends throughout baseball, so when we get in between the lines, its just us vs. them. Vargas was 11-10 with a 3.71 ERA in his first year with the Royals, but stumbled to the finish line, going 0-3 with a 9.00 ERA over his final four starts. Like most of our guys, hes gone through really, really good stretches and then some struggles in sections of the season, Yost said. What he does so well is commands his fastball in, commands his fastball down and away, has a tremendous changeup and a nice curveball. He keeps everybody off balance because when they start looking for the changeup, hell pound you in. When you start looking in, he starts throwing you the changeup and mixing in his curveball every once in a while. Vargas is certainly familiar with the Angels and is 5-4 with a 3.02 ERA in 15 games (14 starts) against them. Los Angeles, meanwhile, steamrolled its way to an AL West title, going an MLB- best 98-64, to get back into the postseason for the first time in five years. Things looked bleak, though, for the Angels on Aug. 20 when emerging ace Garrett Richards was lost for the season with a knee injury. However, rookie Matt Shoemaker and veteran Jered Weaver picked up the slack for an Angels team that eventually won the division by 10 games. Shoemaker has his own injury concerns, but the ribcage strain that caused him to miss the final two weeks of the season appears to he healed and he should be ready to go in this series. Weaver reverted back to ace form this season and will be on the hill Thursday. Weaver, a college teammate of Vargas, tied for the AL lead in wins and was 18-9 with a 3.59 ERA. We have that opportunity again to extend our season, Weaver said, and its up to us to try to decide on how far we want to go with this. Weve got a great group of guys. Its been a fun clubhouse to be part of this whole season, and were going to push on to get our main goal -- and that is to win. Trout, of course, could be on his way to an AL MVP Award this season and will be making his postseason debut in this his third season. He hit .287 to go along with 115 runs scored, while setting career-highs with 36 home runs and 111 RBI. However, he did lead the AL with 184 strikeouts. Trout is a special player, Angels teammate and three-time NL MVP Albert Pujols said. Players like him dont come often, maybe once every 30 or 40 years. This city is blessed to see a young player like Trout. Trout could not have asked for a better opponent in his maiden voyage into the postseason. In 19 career games against Kansas City, Trout is hitting .361 with seven homers and a 1.154 OPS. Los Angeles split six games with the Royals during the season with each team taking two of three in their ballpark. This is the first postseason meeting between the Angels and Royals, former division rivals in the American League West from 1969-93. Terrell Edmunds Jersey . The 20-year-old Inoue landed a series of combinations and the bout was stopped 2 minutes, 54 seconds into the sixth round. Inoue, the first Japanese boxer to claim a world title in just his sixth professional fight, improved to 6-0 with five knockouts. Tyson Alualu Jersey .Y. -- Nothing seems to phase No. http://www.officialpittsburghsteelersfootball.com/authentic-ramon-foster-jersey-womens .com) - A chant of Zeke reverberated around AT&T Stadium before Ezekiel Elliott powered into the end zone for his fourth and final touchdown. Heath Miller Jersey .ca! Hi Kerry, Im sure youve received many emails wondering what your take is on the Spezza goal that looked like Neil blatantly kicked it in while standing directly in the middle of the crease where, you know, usually a goalie is to make a save but couldnt be due to Neil being there! Thanks! Jon - Westfield, MA Jon: Lets first ask Henrik Lundqvist what he thought of the scoring of the Sens second goal with . Vance McDonald Jersey . The R&A announced Monday that golfs oldest championship will return to Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland for the first time since Max Faulkner won in 1951. LOS ANGELES -- Mr. Game 7 delivered in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final. Justin Williams scored 4:36 into overtime as the Los Angeles Kings rallied to edge the New York Rangers 3-2 in the opening game of the NHL championship series Wednesday night. The winning goal came on a cruel bounce, a sudden end to an evening that had started with so much promise for the underdog Rangers. Dan Girardi fanned on a clearing attempt and the puck ended up at the blue-line with Mike Richards, who found Williams alone in front. Williams, who is 7-0 on the Game 7 stage with seven goals and 14 points, scored high to the stick side to complete a Kings comeback from 2-0 down. It was his first career playoff overtime goal. "Ive said this many times, Justin is the most underrated player on our team by a mile," said Kings defenceman Drew Doughty, who had a roller-coaster night. "He doesnt get enough credit for what he does. "Theres two guys on this team that I want to give the puck to and thats him and Kopie (Anze Kopitar). When they have the puck, plays happen." Added coach Darryl Sutter: "Our best right-winger every night consistently." Williams eighth goal of the playoffs marked the third straight year that Game 1 of the final has gone to OT. Game 2 goes Saturday at the Staples Center with advantage Los Angeles. Teams winning Game 1 have gone on to claim the Cup 77 per cent of the time (57-of-74 series) since the final went to a best-of-seven format in 1939. Benoit Pouliot and Carl Hagelin scored for the Rangers before a crowd of 18,399, the Kings 118th straight sellout. Kyle Clifford and Doughty also scored for Los Angeles, which trailed 2-0 after 15 minutes. "Its a great result for us definitely but we have a lot of things to clean up," said Williams, who has nine points (three goals, six assists) in the last seven games. "Certainly not our best game by any standards especially ours. But we were able to get it done and thats the most important thing." "Weve got a lot to clean up but (we are) happy with the win," said Doughty. After going down early, the Kings tied it up at 2-2 in the second period and then came on like a freight train --outshooting New York 20-3 in the final period. The Rangers held on and then threatened late in a wild ending to regulation time. "I liked the way we played in the first two periods," said Rangers coach Alain Vigneault. "I thought it was a hard-fought first 40 minutes by both teams. "Not quite sure what happened there in the third." New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist and the Kings Jonathan Quick both lived up to their reputations on the night, with Quick busy early and Lundqvist late in an entertaining end-to-end game. "He was the reason why we went to overtime," Vigneault said of Lundqvist. "I mean, he gave us a chance. When you get to overtime, a lot of times its a bounce, its a shot. Tonight they got it." "Our best player tonight," Sutter said of Quick. The Rangers managed 25 shots in regulation time. The shots were 2-2 in OT. "Quick didnt have many saves in the third period, but he had some Grade-A ones," said Williams. The Kings registered 13 straight shots in the third before the Rangers finally forced Quick into action 11 minutes 58 seconds into the period. The Kings werent good early on. New York, which had been off since disposing of Montreal last Thursday, came out buzzing. The speedy Rangers played with a purpose after the puck dropped. It was like little brother taking it to big brother -- they scored some knockdowns but eventually the bigger Kings began to claw back control. The Kings, who edged the Blackhawks in overtime Sunday in Chicago to win the Western Conference crown, finished with 455 hits to the Rangers 33.dddddddddddd "They come at you hard," said Vigneault. "When you make a play, you got to be willing to take the hit to make the play. Thats something we knew coming into the series. "I thought for 40 minutes we handled it real well. Not quite sure what happened in the third there." New York -- the best road team in the East this season with 25 wins -- had two good scoring chances in the first three minutes. Quick had to poke-check Chris Kreider to end one threat and then stopped Hagelin from in front after a giveaway. It was an entertaining start, albeit a sloppy one. Quick was a busy man as the Rangers probed for an opening. New York went ahead at 13:21 when Doughty tried to be cute at the New York blue-line, attempting to drag the puck past an onrushing Ranger and lost possession. Things went from bad to worse when defence partner Jake Muzzin fell down and Pouliot scored to the stick side on the ensuing breakaway. The Rangers made it 2-0 the penalty kill at 15:03 as the Roadrunner-like Hagelin outraced Slava Voynov and headed to goal. Quick made the save but the puck bounced in off Voynovs skate for Hagelins seventh of the playoffs. While the bounce was unfortunate, it was the Rangers second scoring chance on the penalty. Hagelin, who also scored on the penalty kill against Montreal, is the sixth player in Rangers history to record more than one short-handed goal in one playoff year and the first since Mark Messier scored two in 1992. Los Angeles pulled one back at 17:33 on a good forecheck. Derek Stepan failed to clear the puck, turning it over and the Kings crashed the net, with Clifford jamming it in top shelf to revive the Staples Center crowd. It was Cliffords first post-season goal since April 23, 2011, snapping a 37-game playoff drought. The Kings outshot the Rangers 14-13 in a first period that belonged to the visitors. Doughty made up for his earlier turnover with a sweet goal that featured almost the same move that tripped him up before. Taking a nifty Williams backhand pass, a trailing Doughty toe-dragged the puck between his legs to evade Derek Dorsett and then snapped a shot through Lundqvists legs for his fifth of the playoffs at 6:36. While Doughty put on the brakes to score from in close, two Rangers and two Kings jostled on the other side of Lundqvist. It was Doughtys 17th point of the post-season, breaking the club record for a defenceman he set two years ago. Clifford made a fine pass to trigger the attack. On the bench, rugged Kings defenceman Matt Greene got treatment for a nasty gash by his left eye that looked like someone had taken a box-cutter to him. The game was getting nasty with Doughty complaining bitterly he had been butt-ended. Later in the game, he got a penalty for embellishment. The shots were 22-21 for the Rangers after 40 minutes. Both teams have travelled marathon journeys to get here. The Kings played 21 games, a league-record maximum, while the Rangers saw action in 20. The record for most playoff games in a single season is 26, set by the 1987 Philadelphia Flyers and 2004 Calgary Flames. The most by a Cup winner is 25, by the 2006 Carolina Hurricanes and 2011 Boston Bruins. Los Angeles finished 10th overall in the league during the regular season with 100 points, four ahead of No. 12 New York. The Kings are looking to win their second Cup in three seasons while the Rangers are after their first championship in 20 years. It was the Kings first playoff OT win at home since May 6, 2001, against Colorado. NOTES: Celebs at the game included Will Ferrell, Kate Bosworth, Jon Hamm, Ellen Page, Jim Carrey, Matthew Perry, Steve Carell, David Boreanaz, Kevin Connolly, Larry David, Catherine Keener, Spike Jonze, and Flea and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. 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