‘85 Royals and ‘73 A’s split

8/16-8/17 - Royals Stadium
GAME 1 - A's 7, Royals 6
In a classic battle between crafty lefties (Ken Holtzman/Charlie Leibrandt) neither pitcher did more than throw batting practice.  Hotzman gave up 5 earned runs in 7 1/3 and Leibrandt gave up 7 in 7 2/3.  To categorize this as a "hitters day" would not be a far reach.  KC jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, when Willie Wilson scored on a George Brett ground out to short.  An error by the normally sure handed Sal Bando led to Lonnie Smith scoring run number two.  Leibrandt looked in control until Deron Johnson hit a two run shot in the top of the 4th to tie the game at 2-2.  Holtzman had a huge "blow up" inning in the 5th as the normally light hitting Royals exploded for 4 big runs.  DH Hal McRae's bases clearing doubled accounted for 3 of those runs.  Jim Sundberg's single plated McRae for the fourth run of the inning.  The Royal offense handed Leibrandt a 6-2 lead, but by the time the 6th inning was over it was 6-5.  Deron Johnson struck again.  This  time he hit a 3 run shot to suck a lot of the air out of the ballpark.  Oakland would finally chase Leibrandt from the bump with 2 more runs in the 8th to take a 1 run lead.  With runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs Rich McKinney was summoned from the bench to pinch hit for Ted Kubiak.  McKinney lined a single to right to score Gene Tenace and Johnson.  Rollie Fingers cam on board to get the final 5 outs as the A's won the opener.  Deron Johson was the hitting star going 3 for 4 with 5 RBI.

GAME 2 - Royals 2, A's 0
In a battle of former Cy Young award winners Bret Saberhagen outlasted Vida Blue.  Sabes fanned 9 A's and walked none for a 6 hit shutout.  Blue only gave up 2 hits.  Unfortunately for the dominant lefty, who struck out 7 Royals, those 2 hits were solo shots by Steve Balboni and Daryl Motley.  The game played in a tidy 2 hours and 27 minutes.  Deron Johnson continued his hot streak with the bat by going 2 for 4, which actually lowered his average to .625.

8/18-8/19 - Oakland Coliseum
GAME 3 - A's 2, Royals 0
The venue switched and so did the results.  This time the A's were able to get the 2-0 win.  Jim "Catfish" Hunter scattered 8 hits and fanned 5 en-route to a complete game shutout.  Bud Black went 7 and gave up only 1 and reliever Dan Quisenberry gave up a run in the 8th when Reggie Jackson hit a mammoth solo shot to right.  George Brett went 3 for 4 in a losing cause.

GAME 4 - Royals 5, A's 4 (10 inn)
KC carried a 4-1 lead into the 9th, but Steve Farr and Dan Quisenberry were incapable of holding it.  Lost in the shuffle was the 6 inning, 1 run performance by Royal starter Mark Gubicza, who wound up with the dreaded "no decision".  Blue Moon Odom was his normal sub par self yielding 2 runs in both the first and fifth innings.  Oakland scored 3 clutch runs in the bottom of the 9th to tie the game at 4.  Farr gave up singles to both Joe Rudi and Deron Johnson to lead off the inning.  Pinch hitter Dick Green struck out looking for the first out  Ray Fosse pinch hit for Angel Mangual and legged out an infield hit to load the bases for Bert Campaneris, who grounded out to third as Rudi scored easily.  Quiz was called on to replace the faltering Farr and served up a 2 run triple to the fleet footed Billy North, which tied the game.  Bando grounded out back to the box to end the inning and force overtime.  A's reliever Paul Lindblad walked the first 2 batters he faced in the top of the 10th.  With Brett and McRae on base Lindblad beaned Balboni to load the bases.  "Bye Bye" Balboni dusted himself off and strolled down to first safely knowing Lindblad was not  throwing at him in such a close game.  Frank White followed that up with a run scoring infield single.  Lindblad was then able to settle down and get Pinch Hitter Pat Sheridan to line out to second and catcher John Wathan to hit into a much needed 3-6-3 DP.  With a 1 run lead in his back pocked, Quiz went to work and this time finished off the A's.  After getting Reggie to pop out to 1st he fanned Tenace and Rudi to end the game and salvage a series split.