Magic Royals moments, 1985 ALCS: Game 3, Brett's crowning moment

With Toronto's Damaso Garcia at third base and one out, and Kansas City leading 1-0, the Royals' Bret Saberhagen delivers to Lloyd Moseby in the third inning of Game 3 of the American League Championship Series on Oct. 11, 1985.

 Moseby strokes a flare down the third-base line.

 Royals third baseman George Brett flags it down.

Brett makes a leaping throw home as Moseby tries to score.

 Royals catcher Jim Sandberg stands ready as the throw beats Moseby home.

Moseby slides into home as Sundberg blocks the plate.

 Home-plate umpire Jim Evans calls Moseby out after Sundberg applies the tag.

Sandberg shakes a fist toward Brett in appreciation after throwing the ball back to Saberhagen.

Brett replies with a smile of satisfaction after preserving the lead in a game the Royals went on to win 6-5. Brett went 4 for 4 in the game with two homers, a double, four runs scored and three RBIs as the Royals won their first game in the ALCS.                                                   

By Phil Ellenbecker

  George Brett kept managing to top himself in the American League Championship Series.

  First there was the three-run homer that tied the final game in 1976. Then the three homers in the third game in 1978. The three-run homer that topped the Yankees and gave the Kansas City Royals a sweep and their first World Series berth in 1980.

  The all-time topper — the “rip-snortin’, hootenanny, double-barreled, deep-dish dilly," as former Kansas State announcer Dev Nelson might have called it — came on Friday night, Oct. 11, 1985.

  For all-around, seize-the-moment clutch performance, no game can match what Brett put together that night in leading the Royals to a 6-5 victory in Game 3 and on their way back to a pennant and eventual first-ever World Series title.

  "Best game I ever played in my life," Brett said in a 2015 article by The Kansas City Star's Blair Kerkhoff.

  "When it was over, we looked back on it: George Brett beat us by himself," Blue Jays reliever Tom Henke told the Toronto Sun. "And that domination started in Game 3."

  From the top, here is what Brett summoned to carry the Royals to their first victory in the series:

  -- With two out in the first inning, Brett hit a solo homer, giving the Royals the early lead.

  -- With one out in the top of the third inning, Brett made a backhanded stop at third base and threw out Damaso Garcia at home to preserve the Royals' 1-0 advantage.

  -- Leading off the Royals' fourth, Brett doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly to make it 2-2.

  -- With nobody out in the fifth, after Toronto had taken a 5-3 lead, Brett tied the game with a two-run homer.

  -- Leading off the eighth, Brett singled and came around to score what proved to be the game-winning run.

  Brett's third-inning defensive gem was something else even for him. Known as a liability with a scatter-gun arm when he first came up to the major leagues, by this time Brett had mastered the hot corner to the point that he was awarded his first AL Gold Glove after the season. And this play encapsulated that defensive emergence.

  The Blue Jays threatened when Garcia doubled off Bret Saberhagen and advanced to third on an error by left fielder Lonnie Smith.

  The next batter, Lloyd Moseby, stroked a flare down the third-base line that Brett flagged down. After making the pickup, in the same motion Brett gunned a jump throw to catcher Jim Sundberg, who had the plate blocked and received the throw in plenty of time to tag Moseby trying to score.

  From Bob Costas' play-by-play call on NBC: "2-2 pitch, slaps it, Brett makes a fine play and comes home, what a play!"

  The TV picture shows Brett flashing a smile and nodding toward Saberhagen.

  "Yeah, you can smile George, why not?" Costas remarks.

  As the replay is shown, color commentator Tony Kubek chimes in: "Who says he can't play defense? Watch how far he goes on this high hopper, it wasn't that easy; extends fully, off-balance throw, outstanding play."

  To further demoralize the Blue Jays, Saberhagen then picked off Moseby at first to end the inning. Replays showed umpire Ted Hendry missed the call.

  Brett, who'd homered to right-center field off Doyle Alexander in the first, went to the same place with a one-hopper to the wall for a double in the fourth. Royals' batters went to the opposite field to add a run off the right-handed Alexander, as Brett advanced to third on Hal McRae's fly out to right and scored on Frank White's sacrifice fly to right, making it 2-0.

  Toronto looked to put the Royals on the ropes, moving toward a taking a 3-0 lead in the series, with five runs in the fifth behind a pair of two-run homers by Jesse Barfield and Rance Mulliniks off Saberhagen. Bud Black was hailed to try to stem the tide, but instead he allowed the Jays to load the bases.

  And this is where the second hero of the night comes in. Steve Farr took over for Black with two out and got the 10th batter of the inning, Barfield, to ground out. He then shut out Toronto the rest of the way, allowing two hits, walking none and striking out three in his 4 2/3-inning stint.

  Meanwhile, K.C. started on its way back with a solo homer by Sundberg in the fifth. (Sundberg batted only .167 in the series but made his four hits in 24 at-bats count with a double, triple and homer for a team-high six RBIs.)

  Willie Wilson led off the sixth with a single, and Brett followed with a two-run homer to left-center. Alexander's night ended when the next batter, McRae, doubled. Dennis Lamp then retired six of the seven batters he faced before manager Bobby Cox called in Jim Clancy starting the eighth.

  Clancy, making his first relief appearance of the year after going 9-6 with a 3.78 ERA as a starter during the regular season, yielded a squib single to right by Brett. "Rolled over on a sinker," Brett recalled to Kerkhoff, calling it his worst swing of the night.

  McRae bunted over Brett, and after White grounded out and Pat Sheridan was intentionally walked, Steve Balboni plated Brett with a single to center for a 6-5 Royals lead. (Balboni, who'd set a Royals homer record that year that still stands at 36, was worse than Sundberg in this series at 3 for 25 for .185. And none of the hits went for extra bases).

  After Farr gave up a leadoff single to George Bell in the eighth, Sundberg threw out Bell trying to steal, and Farr retired the next five batters to close out the win.

  Appropriately enough, Brett caught a foul pop from Moseby for the final out.

  So the Royals could finally breathe, but they were on the brink once again after Toronto beat them the following night 3-1 on Al Oliver's two-run double off Dan Quisenberry in the ninth, which the Royals entered leading 1-0.Two games earlier Oliver had delivered a game-winning single off Quisenberry.

  After Oliver victimized Quiz again in Game 4, manager Rick Howser did whatever he could to avoid having have that same matchup happen again. Oliver's left-handed line drive swing was ideally suited to Quisenberry's delivery. Oliver might as well have been hitting off a tee.

  And that would have been it for the Royals before this year, as 1985 was the first time division series were decided by four wins instead of three.

  So given that reprieve, Danny Jackson started K.C. on the comeback trail Sunday with a complete-game eight-hitter as the Royals won 2-0. Bud Black was the pitching hero the next game with 3 1/3 innings of shutout relief as the Royals won 5-3 in a game tied 2-2 through four innings.

  And it was Charlie Liebrandt, who'd been tagged with two losses earlier in the series, who came to the rescue in the Game 7 6-2 win, after Saberhagen was struck in the hand by a line drive and had to leave the game in the fourth inning. Leibrandt allowed two runs over 5 2/3 innings, and Sundberg's three-run triple blew the game open in a four-run sixth. After the Jays scored a run in the ninth, Quisenberry came on to get the final two batters.

  And the Royals were off to the World Series for the second time the 1980s after coming up short three times in the '70s. Brett had done a lot to get them there during that decade, and kept doing even more in the '80s.