This Date In Royals History--1985 Edition: May 15
Charlie Leibrandt's pitching and Steve Balboni's hitting lead the Royals to a win over Cleveland.
Steve Balboni’s two-run home run in the second inning was all starting pitcher Charlie Leibrandt needed to lead the Royals to a 5-1 win over the Indians at Cleveland Stadium on Wednesday night.
Leibrandt worked a complete game, allowing just six hits and a walk while striking out two hitters. The lefty raised his record to 4-2 and lowered his ERA to 2.28. He retired 15 of the first 18 hitters he faced.
Following a 43-minute rain delay in the bottom of the first, Jorge Orta led off the second with a double against Indians starter Don Schulze, who had picked up a win over the Royals on May 1. Balboni broke a personal seven-game homerless streak by launching a Schulze offering into the left-field seats for a 2-0 lead.
“Last year, I would usually go a couple of weeks without hitting. That’s what I want to stay away from. That can really mess you up. If it goes for just a couple of days, it doesn’t hurt your confidence as much.”--Balboni, quoted by the Associated Press, May 16, 1985
Cleveland cut the lead in half in the sixth inning. With one out, Brett Butler singled and stole second, then scored on a Brook Jacoby double. The Indians had another threat working in the seventh, when Pat Tabler led off with a walk and Joe Carter singled. But Leibrandt was able to convert George Vukovich’s bunt into a force out at third, then retired the final two hitters to end the inning with Kansas City still in front.
“We had a play on where I move toward third base, and I got a nice two-hop bunt to me. It was a big play because it kept the tying run off third.”--Leibrandt, quoted by the Associated Press, May 16, 1985
The Royals then blew the game open with three runs in the eighth, thanks to shoddy Cleveland defense. With one out, Orta doubled. Balboni hit a grounder to third, but Jacoby booted it. After a Schulze wild pitch, Cleveland intentionally walked Dane Iorg to load the bases. Frank White greeted reliever Rich Thompson with a sacrifice fly. Jim Sundberg singled to drive in one, and another run scored when shortstop Mike Fischlin committed a throwing error on an Onix Concepcion grounder.
The Royals improved to 16-15 with the win, their fourth in a row. They were in fourth place in the AL West, but only three games behind the first-place California Angels.
Box score and play-by-play:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE198505150.shtml
1985 baseball news: The Texas Rangers’ managerial situation continued to be a circus, as New York Mets third base coach Bobby Valentine told reporters he had been offered the job by team owner Eddie Chiles and general manager Tom Grieve. Meanwhile, current Rangers manager Doug Rader said he had not been told anything. Rader had been given a contract extension through 1987 at the end of the previous season, but the Rangers now had the worst record in baseball at 9-22.
1985 baseball news: Pete Incaviglia, playing for Oklahoma State, launched his 43rd home run of the season as the Cowboys defeated Kansas State, 10-4, in the Big Eight tournament in Oklahoma City. That gave the junior outfielder a new single-season record for college baseball. Florida State’s Jeff Ledbetter had hit 42 homers in 1982. Incaviglia was also one shy of the single-season RBI record, which was 130, set by Russ Morman of Wichita State.
Today’s birthdays: George Brett (1953), A.J. Hinch (1974), Everett Teaford (1984)