This Date In Royals History--1984 Edition: June 22
An untimely error helps California break the game open as the Royals lose again.
A five-run inning keyed by an untimely error broke the game wide open for the California Angels, who defeated the Royals 8-1 on Friday night at Anaheim Stadium.
The Angels already had a 3-0 lead when they came to the plate in the sixth inning. Reliever Bret Saberhagen had replaced starter Charlie Leibrandt in the third and pitched 2 ⅔ scoreless innings. But Gary Pettis started this inning with a single and stole second. Dick Schofield bunted him to third, which was made unnecessary when Fred Lynn doubled. Doug DeCinces flied out, with Lynn moving up to third. Brian Downing walked. Saberhagen should have escaped the inning when he got Reggie Jackson hit a ground ball, but shortstop U L Washington booted it. Lynn scored on the play for a 5-0 lead. Bobby Grich then made the Royals pay with a three-run home run.
With the Royals’ offense continuing to struggle, that was more than enough for Angels starter Mike Witt. He picked up his sixth win by holding Kansas City to five hits and a walk over seven innings, departing the game only because he felt some tightness in his elbow.
The Royals’ lone run came in the eighth, with Luis Sanchez taking over for Witt. Washington led off with a single and moved up to second on a balk. Jorge Orta singled with two outs to cut the Angels’ lead to 8-1.
Leibrandt ran into trouble right away in the first inning, as Pettis led off with a single and Schofield walked. Lynn’s single gave the Angels a 1-0 lead. With one out, Brian Downing singled for a 2-0 lead, although Leibrandt was able to get two groundouts to avoid further scoring.
But the lefthander could only get one out in the third, leadoff hitter Lynn. DeCinces singled and took second when the ball bounced off center fielder Willie Wilson’s glove. Downing singled to increase California’s advantage to 3-0. Jackson singled and Grich walked to load the bases, at which point Saberhagen was summoned from the bullpen. He escaped the jam by striking out Ron Jackson and retiring Bob Boone on a fly ball.
Perhaps even worse than losing the game for the Royals was losing second baseman Frank White, who strained a hamstring beating out an infield hit in the second inning. White was expected to miss a week or so.
With the loss, the Royals dropped to 28-37. They were in last place in the AL West, 6.5 games behind the Angels.
Box score and play-by-play: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CAL/CAL198406220.shtml
1984 baseball news: In a ceremony at home plate before Minnesota took on the Chicago White Sox, longtime franchise owner Calvin Griffith signed the papers making it official: the team, or at least 52% of it, was being sold to Minnesota banker Carl Pohlad for a price of $32 million. The Griffith family had owned the Twins since 1920, when they were still the Washington Senators (the team moved to the Land of 10,000 Lakes before the 1961 season). Although the sale still needed the approval of the other owners, that seemed to be a foregone conclusion
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