This Date In Royals History--1985 Edition: May 12
The Royals snap a 10-game losing streak against New York with a dramatic comeback win.
At last. The Royals snapped a 10-game losing streak against the Yankees in dramatic fashion, scoring single runs in three different innings to tie the score and then one more in the ninth for a walkoff 6-5 win at Royals Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
After scoring a run in the second on Don Baylor’s leadoff triple and a Ron Hassey groundout, the Yankees knocked Royals starter Bret Saberhagen out of the game with a four-run fourth inning. Baylor started the inning with a single before Hassey drew a walk. Willie Randolph grounded into a force out at third. Mike Pagliarulo singled to score Hassey. Bob Meacham tried a sacrifice bunt that worked better than the Yankees hoped, as Randolph beat the throw home for a 3-2 lead. Rickey Henderson singled to score another run, and Ken Griffey doubled for a 5-2 lead. After issuing an intentional walk to Don Mattingly, reliever Joe Beckwith saved the Royals by getting Dave Winfield to ground into an inning-ending double play.
The Royals had taken a short-lived 2-1 lead in the third. Willie Wilson swatted a Phil Niekro knuckleball into the right-field corner for a triple, and Pat Sheridan hit his first home run of the season..
Once the Yankees retook the lead, the Royals began chipping away. In the fifth, singles by Jorge Orta, Steve Balboni, and Dane Iorg produced one run. In the sixth, Sheridan homered again, this time a solo shot that drew the Royals within one at 5-4. And in the seventh, against reliever Dave Righetti, Hal McRae and Balboni began the inning with singles before a Darryl Motley fly ball tied the score.
Beckwith did a great job keeping the Yankees at bay, but with two outs in the eighth he walked Pagliarulo and gave up a double to Meacham. Dan Quisenberry was summoned from the bullpen and kept the game tied by striking out Henderson.
McRae began the game-winning rally by working Righetti for a walk to start the ninth inning. One out later, Motley singled and McRae went to second. At that point, the Royals sent Buddy Biancalana in to run for McRae. Frank White hit a grounder back to the mound, but Righetti’s throw to second pulled Randolph off the bag and the bases were loaded. Jim Sundberg hit a drive into the left-center field gap that actually bounced over the fence, but thanks to a quirky rule [10.06 (f), to be precise] he was only credited with a single. Most important, though, was that the Royals had a win.
The Royals improved to 13-15 with the win. They were in fourth place in the AL West, 4.5 games behind California.
Box score and play-by-play:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KCA/KCA198505120.shtml
1985 sports news: In the first-ever NBA draft lottery, the New York Knicks won the top spot in the draft, where they would almost certainly take Georgetown center Patrick Ewing. The Knicks had finished with the third-worst record in the league but their envelope was drawn first, which leads to one of my favorite sports conspiracy theories: the envelope was either creased or frozen so commissioner David Stern would have an easy time picking it and making sure Ewing landed in the Big Apple. Probably not true, but fun to think about.
Today’s birthdays: Bob Heise (1947), Travis Dawkins (1979)