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ByDaveSkretta TheAssociatedPress KANSAS CITY, MO. The Royals and A's picked up right where they left off. In their first meeting since last September's dramatic wild- card game, Paulo Orlando de- livered a go-ahead triple in the eighth inning Friday night to help Kansas City to a 6-4 win over Oakland in another back- and-forth affair. Omar Infante also drove in a pair of runs for the Royals, whose 12-inning victory over the Athletics last year ultimately spurred them all the way to Game 7 of the World Series. Kelvin Herrera and Wade Da- vis (2-0) each pitched a score- less inning in relief of the Roy- als' Jeremy Guthrie, and Greg Holland breezed through the ninth for his fourth save. Dan Otero (0-1) gave up both runs in the eighth inning for Oakland. Stephen Vogt hit a pair of solo homers, and Ike Davis also went deep for the A's, whose team bears little resemblance to the one that lost that playoff game at Kauffman Stadium last year. For one thing, their designated hitter these days is Billy Butler, who was playing for the Royals back then. Butler went 1 for 4, extending his hitting streak to 10 games to start the season. The A's jumped in front on Brett Lawrie's sacrifice bunt in the second inning, and Kan- sas City pulled ahead with five straight two-out singles in the third. Oakland quickly answered AMERICAN LEAGUE RoyalsbeatA'sinwild-cardgamerematch Butlerextendshitting streak to 10 games CHARLIERIEDEL–THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Kansas City shortstop Alcides Escobar and Oakland's Brett Lawrie become entangled a er Lawrie was forced out during the seventh inning. By Michael Lewis Bay Area News Group Correspondent HARRISON, N.J. For the second time this young MLS season, the San Jose Earthquakes were re- minded that they have to come out to play in the first half of a road game or suffer the conse- quences. That's exactly what transpired in their 2-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls last night. They al- lowed two goals within a six-min- ute span in the opening half and wound up chasing the rest of the game at Red Bull Arena The Quakes' defeat, their third in their last four games, dropped them to 3-4 while the Red Bulls (3-0-2) moved into first place in the Eastern Conference. On March 28, San Jose dropped a 2-1 decision at New England af- ter another slow start. "We started off the game poorly, got punished for giving the ball away in good areas for them, bad areas for us," coach Dominic Kinnear said. Goalkeeper David Bingham agreed. "We were making rookie mistakes all over the field," he said. "All of us were turning the ball over in the middle of the park. We're giving the ball away at the top of the 18. You can't do this in this league. You do that and you get punished." Sacha Kljestan and Mike Grella inflicted the punishment. In the 29th minute Felipe stole the ball at the top of the penalty area and fed Lloyd Sam on the right flank. Sam crossed to Kljes- tan at the left post and he beat defender Victor Bernandez and Bingham for his first goal of the season. Six minutes later Sam again sent in a right-wing cross to an open Grella, who half-volleyed the ball home from six yards. Team captain and striker Chris Wondolowski started on the bench due to a calf injury he suf- MLS Quakes fall behind early in loss to NY By Tim Reynolds The Associated Press MIAMI No Kobe. No D-Wade. Not even any wild Russell Westbrook outfits. New standouts might emerge during these playoffs, but there's no arguing that there's plenty of star power missing. If jersey sales are a true mea- sure of a player's popularity, then four of the NBA's top nine stars — the Lakers' Kobe Bryant, Okla- homa City's Kevin Durant, New York's Carmelo Anthony and Mi- ami's Dwyane Wade — have al- ready seen their seasons come to an end. So has Westbrook, the league's first scoring champion to miss the playoffs since Tracy McGrady in 2004. And that means his col- lection of "what was he wear- ing" shirts won't be on display in those postgame news conferences this year. "I'm at home, watching other teams play," Westbrook said when asked about the scoring title after he and Oklahoma City saw their season end Wednesday night. "It doesn't mean nothing." Sure, there are plenty of usual suspects ready to shine in this postseason. Tim Duncan will try to win NBA PLAYOFFS Playoffs set to open without Kobe, D-Wade and more stars Thousands of students are opting out of new standard- ized tests aligned to the Com- mon Core standards, defying the latest attempt by states to improve academic perfor- mance. EDUCATION Moreoptingoutof Common Core testing FULLSTORYONPAGEB4 The Red Bluff Spartans (18-3) host Grass Valley's Bear River (13-7) for a doubleheader Sat- urday beginning at 1p.m. BASEBALL Red Bluff Spartans host Saturday doubleheader The Red Bluff Lady Spartans and Corning Lady Cardinals so ball teams continue play Saturday at Shasta's Wolf Pack Invite in Redding. SOFTBALL Shasta's Wolf Pack Invite continues today NBA Playoffs Warriors vs. Pelicans By Antonio Gonzalez The Associated Press OAKLAND Golden State secured the No. 1 overall seed two weeks ago and has been at the top of the NBA standings all season. New Orleans needed an all-out effort through its last game against San Antonio to claim the Western Conference's final playoff spot. Expectations for both teams now are just as stark. The Warriors are hoping the Pelicans are a prelude to their championship march. New Or- leans has a nothing-to-lose-and- everything-to-gain mentality in the franchise's first postseason appearance since 2011. The best-of-seven series starts Saturday at amped-up Oracle Arena, and the only differences that matter will be settled on the court in front of a gold-shirt wearing sellout crowd and a na- tional television audience. "They don't care that we won 67 games," Warriors center An- drew Bogut said. "We don't get an extra pat on the back before the series starts or anything like that. We get home court and that's about it." The Warriors are counting on their talent, experience and playoff pedigree to power them through what they hope is a run that ends with a championship parade. They have MVP favorite Ste- phen Curry and fellow sweet- shooting guard Klay Thomp- son leading the way. They have the NBA's top-rated defense and highest-scoring offense. And they have the league's toughest home court, where 19,596 roaring fans have rocked and rat- tled road teams since well before the Warriors were good. "This is what we've been wait- ing for," Curry said. "Everything we've gone through to this point will hopefully prepare us for this journey of winning 16 games." Golden State might be the deeper, more talented team. But the Pelicans present problems for anybody because of Anthony Da- vis, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2012 draft who is on the verge of stardom — if he's not there al- ready. The 6-foot-10 power forward, who won a national title at Ken- tucky and a gold medal with Top-seeded Warriors, No. 8 Pelicans enter series with different pedigrees Game 1: Warriors vs Pelicans When: Saturday, 12:30p.m. TV/Radio: ABC Game 2: Warriors vs. Pelicans When: Monday, 7:30p.m. TV/Radio: TNT Game 3: Warriors at Pelicans When: Thursday, 6:30p.m. TV/Radio: TNT NBAPLAYOFFS Series tied: 0-0 PHOTOS BY GERALD HERBERT, LM OTERO PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MARK ROJAS STEPHENCURRY Point guard KLAYTHOMPSON Small forward WARRIORS PAGE 2 PLAYOFFS PAGE 2 Get your puzzles fix with the NEA Crossword, Sudoku and Celebrity Cipher, start your day off right with your horoscope, and read the latest advice doled out by Amy Dickinson. YOUR DAILY BREAK Fun and games inside today PAGE B7 QUAKES PAGE 2 A'S PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, April 18, 2015 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1