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25 years ago tonight.
Dick Howser sends 23 year old Mark Gubicza to the mound against Doyle Alexander. This was a game I felt extremely confident in as Howser had begun to set up Bobby Cox platoon strategy to be used against him.
Starting the RH pitcher brought Al Oliver into the starting lineup and Oliver had been killing the Royals in the late innings. Two Game winning hits in the first four games. By doing this and then going to a middle relief LHP, Cox removed Oliver from the lineup and this was crucial one day later in the game 7 finale.
Back to back walks to Wilson and Brett set up MCrae and he delivers a single to LF scoring Wilson.
Jays tie in the bottom half of the 1st as Damaso Garcia doubles to LF and Moseby singles to LF. Rance Mullinix (why the hell he was batting 3rd I'll never know) GIDP. Thank you Rance Mullinix to kill the inning.
Royals strike again in the 3rd as Wilson singles but is forced at second on Brett's FC. McRae smashes a double (what else from Mac?) to LF bringing Brett around.
The Jays tie it in the bottom half again as Tony Fernandez hits a one out double and moves to 3B on WP and scores on Moseby's ground out 4-3.
In the 5th the Royals again grab the lead. This time Brett mashes his 3rd HR of the series (all off Alexander) to RC. The Royals lead in game 6 and I'm now a frightened mess. Gubicza works through uneventful 5th Barfield, Fernandez and Damaso Garcia.
In the 6th, Sundberg gets a leadoff BB and White follows with a SB moving him to second base. Biancalana is now about to meet his destiny. Alexander is extremely pisses at Derryl Cousins because he felt he struck out Sundberg on the 2-2 pitch prior to the BB.
With Sunny on 2nd Biancalana get a pitch he can handle and rips into the RC field gap, scoring Sunny and and advances on Barfield's error. Cox comes out to get Alexander and he is livid with Cousins. So pissed that Cox has to escort him from the mound.
Me? I'm nursing a sore ankle because when Biancalana hit that ball, two things happened:
1) Bob Costas PbP call went something like this: "And the pitch from Alexander to Biancalana *whack!* "HELLO BUDDY BIANCALANA!! A line drive into RC field that scores Sundberg and Barfield has trouble picking it up!! and Biancalana will move to 3rd!! and gives Kansas City some breathing room... It's now 4-2 KC".
2)I ran out my front door in the dark screaming and missed a step, when I landed I had severely sprained my ankle (I drank a LOT in those days).
Cox removed Alexander and brought in Dennis Lamp who promptly gave up a 2b to Skates Smith and the Royals led 5-2.
This where Howser proved to be a better manager than Bobby Cox in this series. Gubicza in the 6th gave up a leadoff 1b to Moseby, a DEEP fly ball to CF by Mullinix and BB to Willie Upshaw. Goobz was replaced by LHP Buddy Black. Cox, true to his form, pulled Oliver in favor of the RH/LHP matchup of Cliff Johnson. But Oliver was done. He couldn't dagger us tonight.
Johnson singles to LF, scoring Moseby and moving Upshaw to 2nd. Black, scaring the living shit outta me throws a WP and everybody moves up, Upshaw to 3rd and Johnson to 2nd. Black gets out of trouble by inducing Bell to pop up to Balboni and Ernie Whitt to pop out to Sundberg. I breathe while my ankle throbs. 5-3 Royals.
Buddy Black was fantastic in this game. He was in all manner of trouble but wriggled off the hook until he turned it over to Quiz with 2 on and 2 out in the 9th. Quiz got Garth Iorg to ground out to end the game.
My ankle was throbbing, my liver was working overtime to dispel the juice and yet I could not sleep a wink. Buddy Biancalana. Imagine that. He had THE big hit in this game. And it was his springboard to Brian Doyle cult hero status and an appearance or two on Letterman.
It was 3-3 now with the AL Cy Young candidate on the mound for the Royals in Game 7, Brett Saberhagan. The Jays would counter with the smarmy bastard Dave Stieb. He'd made a good career of beating the Royals and had done it once in this series already.
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