Royals 4, Athletics 2: Omar Infante went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and James Shields pitched eight solid innings as visiting Kansas City defeated Oakland for the second time in three days.

Billy Butler also had three hits and the Royals had 14 overall while moving 1 1/2 games behind Toronto for the American League’s second wild-card spot. Shields (10-6) allowed two runs and four hits and Greg Holland worked a flawless ninth to post his AL-leading 31st save for Kansas City, which remains five games behind first-place Detroit in the AL Central.

Josh Reddick hit two solo homers for Oakland, which saw its lead in the AL West slip to one game over the Los Angeles Angels. Scott Kazmir (12-4) allowed four runs and 10 hits in six innings for his first loss since June 24.

Shields retired the first 15 batters he faced until Reddick led off the sixth with a homer over the right-center field fence. Reddick took the right-hander deep again with two out in the eighth and Jed Lowrie followed with a single before Shields retired Alberto Callaspo on a grounder with his 102nd and final pitch.

Kansas City pushed across four runs in the fifth inning, beginning with Norichika Aoki’s RBI single. Infante followed with a two-run double to left and stole third before scoring on Salvador Perez’s single to left to make it 4-0.

GAME NOTEBOOK: The two-homer game is Reddick’s second of the season and sixth in his career. … Kansas City RF Lorenzo Cain had two hits and is 10-for-22 over his last seven contests. … Oakland placed INF Nick Punto (hamstring) on the 15-day disabled list and recalled 1B Nate Freiman from Triple-A Sacramento.