This Date In Royals History--1985 Edition: June 16

Bud Black strikes out 10, and it's not good enough as the Royals lose in Seattle again.

Despite Bud Black’s 10 strikeouts, the Royals dropped their second straight 2-1 decision to the Mariners at the Kingdome on Sunday afternoon in Seattle.

Black allowed a run in the first inning, as the first three Seattle hitters reached. Jack Perconte doubled, Phil Bradley singled, and Ivan Calderon doubled for a 1-0 lead. But Black retired the next three hitters to limit the damage.

In all, Black pitched eight innings, allowing seven hits and two walks and just the one run. The 10 strikeouts marked the first time in nearly seven years a Royals pitcher had reached double-digit strikeouts in a game; Rich Gale was the last one to do so, in June of 1978.

Seattle starter Bill Swift, a Mariners draft pick in 1984, was every bit as good as Black was. The rookie pitched 7 2/3 innings, allowing six hits and three walks while striking out five. He too allowed just one run.

That run came in the fifth. John Wathan led off with a double. Buddy Biancalana’s bunt moved Wathan to third. Willie Wilson singled, and the game was tied at 1-1.

Kansas City missed several scoring chances in the late innings. George Brett, making his first start since June 7 after suffering a pulled hamstring, led off the sixth with a single, followed by Jorge Orta drawing a walk. But Swift struck out Steve Balboni and induced a double play grounder from Pat Sheridan. In the eighth, Brett walked with two outs. Ed Vande Berg replaced Swift but issued a walk to pinch-hitter Hal McRae. Reliever Karl Best got the better of Balboni, with a grounder to shortstop resulting in a forceout at second. And in the ninth, Sheridan led off with a single but was doubled off first on Greg Pryor’s fly ball to center.

The Mariners picked up the win with a run in the ninth. Reliever Joe Beckwith took over for Black, but gave up a double to Barry Bonnell, then a single to Jim Presley. Bonnell raced home with the winning run, and the Royals had lost their third straight game to Seattle. It also meant 13 losses in the last 19 games for Kansas City.

“Frustration is managing a bad ball club. This is a good club. We have good pitching and good fielding, our hitting just hasn’t come around yet.”--Royals manager Dick Howser, quoted by the Associated Press, June 17, 1985

The Royals fell to 30-30 with the loss. They also dropped to fourth place in the AL West, three games behind Chicago, as Oakland swept a doubleheader in Cleveland to move a half-game ahead of Kansas City.

Box score and play-by-play:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SEA/SEA198506160.shtml

1985 sports news: Through the first four holes of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakland Hills Country Club in Birmingham, Michigan, it looked like T.C. Chen would cruise to victory after ending each of the first three rounds with the lead. But things fell apart for the Taiwan native on the fifth hole. A bad approach shot left him in the rough. His next shot fell short of the green, also in the rough. Trying to chip onto the green, Chen managed to hit the ball twice, a one-stroke penalty. After a quadruple bogey on the hole, Chen’s lead over Andy North had disappeared. Chen bogeyed the next three holes as well. Although Chen would briefly retake the lead, bogeys on holes 14 and 17 allowed North to pull back in front. North was able to play the last hole cautiously, ending up with a one-stroke victory over Chen, Dave Barr, and Denis Watson. It was North’s first Tour win since he won the 1978 U.S. Open.

Today’s birthdays: Wally Joyner (1962), Kevin Young (1969), Jonathan Broxton (1984), Tyler Zuber (1995)