This Date In Royals History--1984 Edition: June 27
Royals pitchers give up five homers and Oakland does something not seen in MLB for almost 20 years.
Royals pitchers allowed five home runs and the Oakland A’s almost did something no major league team had done in 20 years in the Athletics’ 9-5 win on Wednesday night at Royals Stadium.
Royals starter Larry Gura found trouble immediately in the first inning, as Rickey Henderson led off with a single and Dwayne Murphy walked. Joe Morgan’s single loaded the bases. Gura limited the damage well as Dave Kingman hit a sacrifice fly and Carney Lansford grounded into a double play.
Kansas City tied the game in the bottom of the first. Oakland starter Steve McCatty retired the first two batters, but doubles by George Brett and Jorge Orta made it a 1-1 game.
The teams traded runs again in the second, as Davey Lopes led off the top of the inning with a home run. In the bottom of the inning, Don Slaught walked with one out and Buddy Biancalana tripled, but two groundouts left the score tied at 2-2.
The A’s picked up an unearned run in the fourth as Morgan singled with two outs and took second when right fielder Pat Sheridan mishandled the ball. Kingman’s single put the A’s in front.
Oakland added to the lead with a run in the fourth. Lopes led off with a double and scored on a Mike Heath single. Reliever Joe Beckwith replaced Gura and escaped the inning without further scoring, although Heath stole second and third.
Kansas City got one run back in the bottom of the fourth as Dane Iorg singled and Don Slaught doubled with one out, Biancalana’s grounder brought Iorg home, cutting the Oakland lead to 4-3.
But the A’s took control of the game over the next three innings. In the fifth, Murphy led off with a home run and doubles by Morgan and Lansford produced another run. Henderson homered with two outs and no one on in the sixth, and Kingman hit his 20th home run of the season in the seventh, a solo shot that made the score 8-3.
The Royals mounted a rally in the eighth as Willie Wilson led off with a walk and scored on Sheridan’s double. Keith Atherton replaced McCatty and retired Brett on a fly ball. Orta’s single scored Sheridan, but Atherton set down the next two hitters and worked a perfect ninth to seal the victory.
Murphy homered in the ninth for the final run. That meant the A’s had scored in every inning except the eighth. The last visiting team to score in every inning in a major-league game was the St. Louis Cardinals, who did it at Wrigley Field in a game against the Cubs in 1964.
The loss meant the A’s won three of four in the series, with a combined score of 26-23 in favor of Kansas City despite their 16-0 win in the first game. The Royals fell to 31-40 with the loss, putting them in sixth place in the AL West, six games behind California.
Box score and play-by-play: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KCA/KCA198406270.shtml
Today’s birthdays: Joe Zdeb (1953), Jeff Conine (1966), Andy Larkin (1974), Abraham Almonte (1989)