9/11/81 - Oakland Coliseum
A's 3, Royals 1
Leonard vs Kingman
After getting battered around most of the season Brian Kingman was tapped to pitch on short rest (3 days). The reason he was given that honor had less to do with his skill and more to do with the fact that Oakland's manager wanted to get the rest of his rotation back on track. Kingman responded by bobbing and weaving in and out of trouble. After 92 pitches and 7 hits during his 5 scoreless innings he handed the ball over to Jeff Jones, who pushed himself to the brink of exhaustion. Jones went 2 2/3 innings in relief and gave up just 1 unearned run. Beard and Ochinko split time in the 9th with the latter earning the save. Oakland struck in the 2nd with two big two out hits. Light hitting Fred "Chicken" Stanley knocked in Wayne Gross with a 2 run double. Rickey Henderson followed up with an RBI single. Cliff Johnson's solo blast off of hard luck starter Dennis Leonard made it 3-0. KC got on the board with an RBI single from Willie Wilson in the 7th and had 2 runners on in the 8th when Owchinko got Amos Otis ground out to third.
9/12/81
A's 4, Royals 1
Jones vs Langford
A's 3, Royals 1
Leonard vs Kingman
After getting battered around most of the season Brian Kingman was tapped to pitch on short rest (3 days). The reason he was given that honor had less to do with his skill and more to do with the fact that Oakland's manager wanted to get the rest of his rotation back on track. Kingman responded by bobbing and weaving in and out of trouble. After 92 pitches and 7 hits during his 5 scoreless innings he handed the ball over to Jeff Jones, who pushed himself to the brink of exhaustion. Jones went 2 2/3 innings in relief and gave up just 1 unearned run. Beard and Ochinko split time in the 9th with the latter earning the save. Oakland struck in the 2nd with two big two out hits. Light hitting Fred "Chicken" Stanley knocked in Wayne Gross with a 2 run double. Rickey Henderson followed up with an RBI single. Cliff Johnson's solo blast off of hard luck starter Dennis Leonard made it 3-0. KC got on the board with an RBI single from Willie Wilson in the 7th and had 2 runners on in the 8th when Owchinko got Amos Otis ground out to third.9/12/81
A's 4, Royals 1
Jones vs Langford
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| No hitter for 6 inn |
Mike Heath walked witht he bases loaded in the 3rd to make it a 1-0 game. Tony Armas, who has been heating up as of late, hit a 3 run shot in the 5th. Langford was cruising with 6 innings of no-hit ball until future HOF'er George Brett singled to lead off the 7th. Langford would lose his shutout in the 9th when Aikens hit a 1 out solo shot. Langford would get Brett to pop out to short for his second out and McRae would ground out weakly to short to end it. Rick Langford notches the complete game victory allowing just 1 run on 3 hits.
9/13/81
A's 4, Royals 2
9/13/81
A's 4, Royals 2
Norris vs Gura
"You stick with your ace, no matter what", said Justin Ryan manager of the fading Royals. Up 2-1 and heading into the bottom of the 9th Ryan put all of his trust and faith on the left arm of Lary Gura. On a 3-2 payoff pitch Rickey Henderson lined a homer over the left field wall to tie the game at 2-2. Gura got Shooty Babitt to ground out to short, but walked Dwayne Murphy on 6 pitches. After Tony Armas lined out to U.L. Washington for the second out of the inning everyone turned toward the A's bullpen to see if there was any action going on, which there wasn't. Oakland starter Mike Norris was getting set to start the 10th inning since it looked more than likely that there would be extra innings. That likelihood ended with one mammoth swing of his 35 ounce bat. Gura's fastball, which normally tops out around 90 came in around 88 and went out even faster. Cliff Johnson's walk off homer saved Mike Norris (6-0, 1.94) from a 10th inning after he threw 126 pitches. Oakland completes the 3 game sweep and gets back into the AL West race with a 20-14 record. KC drops to 16-17, and in the words of Ryan, "KC is now dead".
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| Walk off 3 run blast |
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