This Date In Royals History--1984 Edition: August 29
Bud Black recovers from a shaky start to pitch the Royals to a win over Texas.
After a rocky first inning, Bud Black shut down the Texas Rangers in Kansas City’s 4-1 win on Wednesday night at Royals Stadium.
Three of the first four Rangers hitters reached base. With one out, Gary Ward put Texas on top with a solo home run. Buddy Bell and Larry Parrish followed with singles. But Black got Pete O'Brien to ground into a double play to end the inning. Black then held Texas to three hits the rest of the game.
“I wasn’t worried about Black in the first inning. He was throwing the ball too good.”--Royals manager Dick Howser, quoted by the Associated Press, August 30, 1984
“I didn’t let the first inning bother me. One run didn’t upset me because I knew we had nine at-bats. I just wanted to stop them there because I knew they had a guy who wasn’t going to give up many runs.”--Black, quoted by the Associated Press, August 30, 1984
That guy was Rangers starter Frank Tanana, who had won five straight decisions entering the game. But Tanana also had a 6-17 mark in his career against the Royals. Tanana retired the first two batters of the first inning, but walked Darryl Motley. Hal McRae then tripled to tie the game.
The Royals then took the lead for good in the second. Greg Pryor singled with one out. John Wathan tripled, scoring Pryor. After Buddy Biancalana walked, Willie Wilson grounded out, with Wathan scoring for a 3-1 lead.
McRae capped the scoring with a home run in the third inning, his third of the season.
Much like Black, Tanana got in a groove, holding Kansas City to three hits after that. Two of those came in the eighth, when Lynn Jones and Motley started the inning with singles. Dave Schmidt replaced Tanana and retired the next two batters. Don Slaught singled but Jones was thrown out at the plate, ending the inning.
Black was really in trouble only one time after the first inning. Parrish led off the fourth with a double. But after O’Brien grounded out, moving Parrish to third, Black struck out George Wright and Ned Yost to end the inning. Texas would have one hit the rest of the way, and that runner was promptly erased on a double play. Black, who improved to 14-10 on the season as he struck out five with no walks, retired 17 of the last 18 batters.
With the win, the Royals reached .500 for the season again. At 66-66, they were in second place in the AL West. The Minnesota Twins lost, so Kansas City was only three games out of first.
Box score and play-by-play: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KCA/KCA198408290.shtml
Today’s birthdays: Ryan Shealy (1979), Eduardo Villacis (1979)