This Date In Royals History--1985 Edition: June 17
Steve Balboni crushes two homers as the Royals trounce Minnesota.
Steve Balboni’s two home runs sparked the Royals’ offense, which exploded for nine runs in two innings as Kansas City thumped Minnesota 10-3 at Royals Stadium on Monday night.
Minnesota took an early 2-0 lead against Royals starter Bret Saberhagen. The Twins scored one in the first inning on singles by Mickey Hatcher, Kent Hrbek, and Mike Stenhouse. In the third inning, Hrbek doubled and scored on Tom Brunansky’s single.
After Twins starter Frank Viola pitched two perfect innings, Balboni led off the third inning with his 11th home run of the season, cutting the Minnesota lead to 2-1.
Saberhagen pitched eight innings and allowed 10 hits. He struck out three and issued a pair of walks, which contributed to Minnesota’s third run. Hrbek and Brunansky started the fifth with free passes, and a forceout advanced Hrbek to third. Mark Salas hit a sacrifice fly to give the Twins a 3-1 lead.
Through five innings, Viola had only given up the home run and two harmless singles. But in the sixth inning, Balboni delivered the biggest blow of the game. With two outs and no one on, George Brett, Darryl Motley, and Frank White all singled to cut the deficit to 3-2. Hal McRae hit a grounder to shortstop Greg Gagne, who booted it, allowing the tying run to score. Balboni followed with his second home run of the night, giving the Royals a 6-3 lead.
“If I’m swinging the bat good, it doesn’t really matter who the pitcher is. I feel like I can hit the ball. That’s what’s weird. I didn’t feel that good. I took some extra hitting today and I wasn’t swinging the bat good at all. I had no idea what to expect tonight. I didn’t feel comfortable at all. I don’t know what it was. I’m just happy it worked out.”--Balboni, quoted by the Associated Press, June 18, 1985
“It looked like Viola was pitching another one of his typical games against us, then all of a sudden we had the big inning. There’s no question that Balboni’s home run gave us a big lift. The first one got us back in it and the second one broke it open.”--Royals manager Dick Howser, quoted by the Associated Press, June 18, 1985
Speaking of breaking it open, Kansas City increased the lead to 10-3 with another big inning, scoring four runs in the seventh. With Rick Lysander entering the game in relief of Viola, Onix Concepcion and Willie Wilson started the inning with singles. Lonnie Smith grounded out, and the Twins intentionally walked Brett to load the bases. Motley singled to drive in two runs, and White and McRae each added an RBI single.
Saberhagen retired 12 of the last 14 hitters he faced as he improved his season record to 7-3.
The Royals improved to 31-30. With Oakland idle, Kansas City moved into a tie for third with the Athletics; both teams were 2.5 games behind Chicago.
Box score and play-by-play:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KCA/KCA198506170.shtml
Today’s birthdays: Mike Magnante (1965), Donnie Sadler (1975)