This Date In Royals History--1984 Edition: May 9
Unlucky number seven for the Royals, and the longest game in MLB history comes to an end.
The Royals dropped their seventh game in a row as the Detroit Tigers completed a three-game series sweep with a 3-1 win on Wednesday night at Royals Stadium.
The Tigers, seeking their 14th straight road win of the year, scored two runs in the top of the second against Royals starter Danny Jackson. Darrell Evans began the inning with a double, then scored when Rusty Kuntz doubled with one out. Jackson committed a throwing error on a Tom Brookens grounder, allowing Kuntz to move to third, and although Lou Whitaker grounded into a forceout, Kuntz came home with Detroit’s second run.
That was really all that Tigers starter Dan Petry needed. He scattered seven hits over 6 ⅔ innings, although he also issued four walks. Petry struck out five. The Royals’ slumbering offense, which had scored 15 runs in the six losses preceding this one, could not take advantage of two singles in the second or an error and two singles in the third.
Detroit tacked on a run in the fifth as Alan Trammell singled with one out and took second on a wild pitch. With two outs, Marty Castillo singled to put Detroit on top, 3-0.
The Royals broke through at last in the sixth, as Steve Balboni and John Wathan both doubled with one out. However, Petry retired the next two hitters to prevent any other runs. Petry walked Jorge Orta and Hal McRae with two outs in the seventh, but Aurelio Lopez entered the game, struck out Frank White to end the inning, and pitched two more scoreless innings to earn his fourth save.
The win gave the Tigers an incredible 25-4 mark for the year, equaling the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers for best 29-game start to a season. Meanwhile, the Royals fell to 9-18 as they lost for the 12th time in 14 games. Kansas City was in sixth place in the AL West, six games behind Minnesota.
Box score and play-by-play: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KCA/KCA198405090.shtml
1984 baseball news: In Chicago, the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago White Sox completed (at last!) the longest game in major-league history, a 7-6 win for the White Sox in a mind-blowing 25 innings. The game actually began on May 8, was suspended at 1:05 am on May 9 after 17 innings had been completed, and was finished that afternoon before the two teams’ regularly scheduled game. Harold Baines ended the festivities with a walkoff home run off Milwaukee’s sixth pitcher of the game, Chuck Porter. The game was tied at 3-3 after nine innings; neither team scored again until the 21st, when, incredibly, each team scored three runs. Tom Seaver picked up the win by pitching the final inning; Seaver then pitched 8 ⅓ innings in the next game to earn another win. Total game time for the marathon was eight hours and six minutes.
Today’s birthdays: Steve Hammond (1957), Jimmy Serrano (1976)