This Date In Royals History--1984 Edition: August 31

That's what speed do: Willie Wilson's legs make the difference in a Royals win over Chicago.

Strong pitching and Willie Wilson’s speed lifted the Royals to a 3-1 win over the White Sox at Comiskey Park in Chicago on Friday night.

Facing White Sox starter Richard Dotson, Wilson started the game with a double. Pat Sheridan singled, with Wilson stopping at third, and a Dane Iorg groundout put the Royals in front, 1-0.

Chicago tied the score in the bottom of the inning. Royals starter Charlie Leibrandt retired the first two batters, but Greg Walker singled and Carlton Fisk doubled to put the White Sox on the board.

Both pitchers posted zeroes on the scoreboard for the next several innings, although each one had to work out of some trouble. The Royals had a single and a walk in the third, but Darryl Motley’s popup ended the inning. Leibrandt found himself in a jam entirely of his own making in the bottom of the third, issuing a leadoff walk to Rudy Law, a one-out walk to Walker, and hitting Greg Luzinski with a pitch with two outs. But Leibrandt, who would only deal out one more free pass the rest of the game, got Ron Kittle to ground out, ending the inning.

Finally, the Royals took the lead in the seventh. Wilson led off with a triple. Sheridan popped up, but Iorg hit a fly ball to center, deep enough for Wilson to score for a 2-1 lead.

Leibrandt struck out the first batter in the bottom of the seventh, but Law reached on a bunt single and Tom Paciorek walked. Dan Quisenberry entered in relief, as Leibrandt ended his night with six hits allowed and eight strikeouts. Quisenberry induced a groundout from Fisk to end the inning.

Kansas City tacked on an insurance run in the top of the ninth. Greg Pryor started the inning with a single and took second on Buddy Biancalana’s bunt. Wilson’s grounder to shortstop was snared by Jerry Dybzinski, but a wild throw to first allowed Pryor to score, while Wilson reached second. Although he was stranded there, the Royals had a 3-1 lead.

The extra run was welcome but unneeded. Quisenberry made it seven straight outs with a trio of groundouts in the ninth. It gave him his league-leading 36th save.

With the win, the Royals once again reached .500 at 67-67. They remained in second place in the AL West, but with Minnesota’s loss, moved to two games out of first.

Off the field, the Royals announced they would install a new artificial surface at Royals Stadium for the 1985 season. The new turf was called Astro Turf 8 Drainthru and was the same turf installed at Busch Stadium in St. Louis before the 1984 season. The turf was supposed to drain water so quickly that play could resume as soon as any rain ended. There had been speculation that the Royals would install natural grass, but as it turned out, that was a decade away from happening.

Box score and play-by-play: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA198408310.shtml

Today’s birthdays: Hideo Nomo (1968), Jason Gilfillan (1976), Ramon Ramirez (1981)