This Date In Royals History--1984 Edition: September 19
The Royals blow two different leads in a loss to California.
The Royals couldn’t hold two different leads, dropping a 4-3 decision to the Angels in 11 innings on Wednesday night at Anaheim Stadium.
After scoring 10 runs in each of the first two games of the four-game set, the Royals’ offense seemed to be on its way to another big game in the first inning. Facing Geoff Zahn, Willie Wilson started the game with a single. Lynn Jones doubled, with Wilson scoring when catcher Bob Boone couldn’t handle the throw to the plate. Jones moved up to third on the error and scored on George Brett’s groundout, giving Kansas City a 2-0 lead.
The Angels got one of the runs back in the bottom of the first. Juan Beniquez led off with a double against Royals starter Danny Jackson. With one out, Fred Lynn doubled to score Beniquez.
California pulled even in the second. Reggie Jackson led off with a walk and moved up to second on a fly ball to deep right field. With two outs, Boone doubled to tie the game at 2-2.
Befitting a late-season game between two contenders, Zahn and Jackson traded scoreless innings until the sixth. Zahn retired the first two batters, but Hal McRae kept the inning alive with a single. Frank White singled and Steve Balboni walked, and suddenly the bases were loaded. Darryl Motley singled to drive in one run and put the Royals on top, 3-2. Doug Corbett replaced Zahn and got Don Slaught to ground out, ending the inning.
Jackson walked Darrell Miller to lead off the seventh, prompting the Royals to summon relief ace Dan Quisenberry. Boone bunted Miller to second and Quisenberry struck out Beniquez for the second out. Rod Carew, out of action for a week due to a pinched nerve in his neck, stepped up to pinch-hit and delivered a line drive single on an 0-2 pitch, tying the game at 3-3.
Corbett went on to retire 10 straight batters before Don Aase took over for the 10th. Aase pitched two scoreless, hitless innings, although he did walk Brett to lead off the 11th. Orta grounded into a double play, erasing pinch-runner Greg Pryor, and the Royals could not take advantage.
The Angels finally tallied the winning run in the 11th. Royals reliever Joe Beckwith had replaced Quisenberry after the eighth and turned in another solid relief performance in this game, holding California to a walk over his first two innings of work. Doug DeCinces led off the 11th with a single. Brian Downing bunted pinch-runner Rick Burleson to second. Beckwith intentionally walked Jackson to set up a double play, then got the ground ball he wanted off the bat of Bobby Grich. But instead of two outs, the Royals got none. The ball took a crazy hop over Pryor’s head, allowing Burleson to score and end the game.
“That’s the way this game is. You hate to lose a ballgame like that in the middle of a pennant race. Especially on a tailor-made double play ball. But you can’t blame that on anything but the ground.”--Beckwith, quoted by the Associated Press, September 20, 1984
“I was hoping it would take off. I knew I’d hit it with topspin, and on this infield the ball has a tendency to pop up.”--Grich, quoted by the Associated Press, September 20, 1984
With the loss, the Royals dropped to 78-73. Minnesota lost for the third straight night, so now the Royals led the Angels by 1.5 games and the Twins by two games in the AL West race.
Box score and play-by-play: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CAL/CAL198409190.shtml
1984 news: A Hezbollah suicide bomber drove a van packed with explosives towards the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Although guards shot and killed the driver before the vehicle reached the building, the van still exploded when it collided with a parked vehicle. The blast killed 23 people, including two Americans. The U.S. Ambassdor and British Ambassador, who were meeting in the building, were both slightly injured. This was the second bombing of the embassy in 18 months; the April 1983 one killed 63 people.
Today’s birthdays: Lenny DiNardo (1979), Danny Valencia (1984)