This Date In Royals History--1985 Edition: September 14

Bret Saberhagen continues to shine, pitching a three-hitter as the Royals win in Oakland.

Another day, another pitchers’ duel. Luckily for the Royals, they had Bret Saberhagen on their side in this one. For the second time in three games, the Royals were involved in a 2-1 affair. And for the second time in three games, the Royals won 2-1, this time over the A’s at the Oakland Coliseum on Saturday afternoon.

Saberhagen was magnificent, pitching a complete-game three-hitter. He did walk two batters but also set a then-career high in strikeouts with 12. He retired 15 of the first 17 hitters he faced before Oakland managed to score a run in the sixth.

“I knew that was close to a career high, but I never thought I’d gotten that many. I’m not going to strike a lot of guys out with my fastball but I had my best curve of the year and a good slider and I got some strikeouts with those.”--Saberhagen, quoted by the Associated Press, September 14, 1985

The Royals offense struggled against Oakland starter Tommy John, who held Kansas City to five hits over eight innings. John didn’t walk anyone although he only recorded one strikeout. It was an important strikeout, as he got George Brett in the first inning with one out and a runner on third. The Royals did not score that inning and did not have another scoring threat until the fourth.

In that inning, Hal McRae led off with a double and took third on a groundout. Steve Balboni hit a grounder to third, but Tony Phillips made a bad throw to first. Balboni was safe but McRae had to stay at third. Darryl Motley grounded into a double play and the game remained scoreless.

Until the sixth, that is. With one out, Brett reached on second baseman Mike Gallego’s error. McRae worked the count full, then belted a John pitch over the left-field wall for a 2-0 lead. It was McRae’s 14th home run of the season.

Saberhagen’s lone rough inning came in the bottom of the sixth. With one out, Alfredo Griffin singled and stole second. Phillips doubled, cutting the Royals’ lead to 2-1. Bruce Bochte walked. A fly ball allowed Phillips to tag up and take third, and Bochte followed that with a stolen base. But Mike Davis grounded out and the Royals retained the lead.

The A’s would not threaten again. In fact, Saberhagen finished off the game with three perfect innings. The win improved the 21-year-old’s record to 18-6 on the season, with a very nice 2.73 ERA.

“He’s good now but he’s getting better. It’s almost scary to think how good he’ll be when he’s been around a few years.”--Royals catcher Jim Sundberg, quoted by the Associated Press, September 15, 1985

The win was Kansas City’s fourth straight win and 12th in their past 13 games, giving them an 81-59 mark. It also helped the Royals move to three games ahead of California in the AL West standings, as the Angels lost at home to Texas.

Box score and play-by-play:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK198509140.shtml

1985 sports news: KC-area college teams had a mixed bag of results on this Saturday. Missouri lost their season opener to Northwestern, 27-23, breaking a 13-year losing streak against non-conference road opponents for the Wildcats. Speaking of Wildcats, Kansas State suffered an even worse loss, dropping a 10-6 decision to I-AA Northern Iowa in Manhattan. Given that loss and the previous week’s defeat at the hands of Wichita State, rumors began flying that K-State coach Jim Dickey had been asked to resign. On the bright side, Kansas routed Vanderbilt by a 42-16 mark, with quarterback Mike Norseth throwing for a school and Big 8 record 480 yards. Elsewhere in the Big 8, Iowa State beat Utah State, 10-3; eighth-ranked Oklahoma State escaped an upset by squeaking past North Texas, 10-9; and Colorado downed Oregon by a 21-17 score.

Today’s birthdays: Jerry Don Gleaton (1957), Jake Brentz (1994)