Kansas City's Tony Pena Jr., bottom, steals second under Oakland's Bobby Crosby. The Royals lost, 5-4, in 11 innings Tuesday in Oakland, Calif.

Oakland, Calif. ? Dan Johnson owns more than the American League’s best hitting streak.

His game-ending sacrifice fly to center in the bottom of the 11th scored Shannon Stewart on a tight slide at the plate for the winning run, lifting the Oakland Athletics to a 5-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night.

Stewart got his right leg under catcher Paul Phillips’ tag attempt after a great throw home by David DeJesus.

Lenny DiNardo (1-1) pitched the 11th for the victory in a game that went 3 hours, 43 minutes.

Stewart and Nick Swisher hit consecutive one-out singles against Joakim Soria (1-2) before Eric Chavez was intentionally walked to bring up Johnson, who earlier extended his AL-best hitting streak to 15 games with a single to start the sixth.

Both teams missed their share of chances.

Oakland’s Jack Cust, who hit six home runs in his first eight games with the A’s, came up with the bases loaded in the ninth but struck out swinging to end the inning.

Alex Gordon did the same thing in the top of the 10th, leaving the bases loaded after Chavez threw Mark Grudzielanek out at home from third for the second out.

Each of Oakland’s last three games have been decided in the last at-bat and nine of the A’s last 13 games have been have been decided in the seventh or later.

Tony Pena Jr. hit a tying two-run triple in the ninth that took a funny bounce in center field, his career-high fourth hit.

After David Riske allowed a one-out walk to Shannon Stewart in the ninth, Zack Greinke relieved to face Swisher and he singled up the middle to put runners on first and second. Johnson followed with a walk to load the bases.

Just when Joe Kennedy seemed poised to beat the Royals in back-to-back starts, the bullpen couldn’t hold it – an immediate sign how much the A’s will miss injured closer Huston Street.

Bobby Crosby singled in two runs to break up a scoreless tie in the fourth, and Kennedy struck out four in 72â3 innings and allowed three of his six hits to Pena Jr. Chavez and Mark Ellis each drove in runs in eighth for the A’s.

John Buck hit his seventh homer to start the eighth for Kansas City’s only run against Kennedy, who retired eight straight batters between Pena’s first two singles.

Marco Scutaro, who started in right field because of Oakland’s injury-depleted outfield, doubled among his two hits and stole his first base of the season.