One night after becoming a father, Royals P Bret Saberhagen tossed a five-hitter….after getting all the offense he needed when Darryl Motley homered to left off John Tudor in the second inning, after a walk to Steve Balboni. In the third, Lonnie Smith led off with a walk…..and with one out George Brett hit an accidental infield single…..then after a double steal, Tudor issued walks to Frank White and Jim Sundberg, making it 3-0….while Tudor was replaced with Bill Campbell after only 21⁄3 innings….and that is when Steve Balboni singled to left off Campbell for two runs to make it 5-0…..as Tudor walked four and was charged with all five runs. In the dugout, he angrily punched an electrical fan, cutting his pitching hand.
The Royals blew the game open in the bottom of the fifth…..as a succession of five Cardinal pitchers allowed six Royals runs….whit five coming after two were out. Campbell gave up a single to Sundberg and was immediately replaced by Jeff Lahti….who allowed four runs before being replaced by Ricky Horton….however, after Horton gave up a single to Brett….Cards Mgr Whitey Herzog immediately replaced him with the volatile Joaquín Andújar….who was normally a starter but had to be pressed into relief…..as he immediately allowed an RBI single to Frank White to increase the Royals lead to 10–0 before the Cardinals came completely unglued…..when with Sundberg at the plate, Andújar twice charged home plate umpire Denkinger to disagree with his strike zone. First, Denkinger called an Andújar pitch a ball. Herzog, who had been berating Denkinger for most of the game, rushed from the dugout to defend Andújar, and was ejected reportedly after saying to Denkinger, “We wouldn’t even be here if you hadn’t missed the fucking call last night!” According to Denkinger, he replied “Well if you guys weren’t hitting .120 in this World Series, we wouldn’t be here.” The next pitch was also called a ball, and Denkinger ejected Andújar….who again lost his cool and charged at Denkinger. It took three teammates to restrain him and get him off the field. Replays showed both pitches were clearly inside and Al Michaels and Jim Palmer both acknowledged the fact. Andújar was suspended for the first ten games of the 1986 season for his outburst. Although it has been rumored that Herzog sent in Andújar specifically to bait Denkinger, Herzog himself has said several times Andújar was the only pitcher who still had anything left in his arm.
The Royals became the first team ever to win the World Series after dropping Games 1 and 2 at home.
