Cy Young Award winner Bret Saberhagen stifled the California Angels on Sept. 30, 1985, throwing a complete-game five hitter with 10 strikeouts in a 3-1 victory. This game launched the Kansas City Royals on a season-closing run that captured the American League West title en route to winning the World Series.
By Phil Ellenbecker
It was a frigid autumn night as I settled into nosebleed seats at Royals Stadium on Sept. 30, 1985, unforgiving weather for an unforgiving time of the baseball season. And the California Angels could be forgiven for ruing walking up to the plate this night against Bret Saberhagen.
In the opening game of a penultimate, showdown series, Saberhagen proverbially shoved the baseball up the backsides of the Angels with a complete game five-hitter, striking out 10 and walking two in a 3-1 victory.
Saberhagen's cold-blooded performance set the tone for the final week of the regular season as the Royals moved into a tie for first place with the Angels in the American League West, on the way to winning the series 3-1 and clinching the division Saturday against Oakland.
The 21-year-old right-hander, running his record to a final mark of 20-6 in his second full season, was hardly challenged after giving up a leadoff homer to Doug DeCinces in the second inning. He allowed only two base runners into scoring position after that, and was helped by left fielder Lonnie Smith, who threw a runner out at the plate in the third, and by Jim Sundberg, who erased Gary Pettis trying to steal in the seventh.
(Smith, known as "Skates" for his unsteady feet and not known for his glove, did lead the league in outfield assists twice and was in double digits five times, including 11 in '85.)
Saberhagen, the '85 AL Cy Young Award winner, came back from the second-inning gopher ball to fan the final two batters of the inning, struck out the side in the sixth and retired 13 of the final 15 batters he faced.
He got a couple of Hall of Famers to whiff ending the last two innings. Rod Carew went down in the eighth and Reggie Jackson ended the game with a stiff breeze.
George Brett tied the game with a leadoff homer in the fourth. It was his 26th homer, giving him a career high, and he was not done for the week.
The Royals used the long ball again, from a somewhat more unlikely source, in gaining what proved to be the deciding run. First-year Royal Sundberg launched a solo shot with one out in the seventh, his 10th homer of the year, two shy of the career high he set next year.
A leadoff triple by Willie Wilson led to an insurance run in the eighth, as Brett followed with a sacrifice fly to right. For Wilson, it was his 20th three-bagger in a season he'd finish with 21, six more than his career high. In leading the league for the third of five times, he set a mark that's tied with Lance Johnson (1996) for the second-best since 1950 behind Curtis Granderson's 23 in 2007. It's also tied for 53rd-most in a season of all time, and of the 52 seasons ahead of him only five came beyond 1930.
The series win over the Angels was the first of a trifecta of do-or-die situations for the Royals in their march to a first World Series title. Next the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL Championship Series. Then the St. Louis Cardinals in the I-70 Series. Both times coming back from 3-1 deficits. And it started with the Royals chasing down the Angels from 7 1/2 games back on July 21, still five back August 8, and 2 1/2 back Sept. 2.
And right there along the way, leading the way, was George Brett after playing a key part in the Sept. 30 win over the Angels. For the rest of the season he went 8 for 17 (.470 batting average) with nine RBIs and six runs scored as the Royals, after losing Oct 1 and letting California slip back ahead in the race, won the final two games against the Angels and the first two of a closing series in Oakland to clinch the division title.
And after keeping the ball in the yard on Tuesday, Brett homered in the final four games of the season. In the Monday-through-Saturday stretch, Brett was 9 for 20 (.450) with five homers, 11 RBIs and seven runs.
That brought Brett's final ledger to .335 with 30 homers, 112 RBIs and 108 runs scored. He led the league in slugging average and on base-plus-slugging percentage, plus intentional walks. And he won the AL Gold Glove at third base.
Brett finished second in the AL MVP voting behind New York Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly, who hit .324 with 35 homers, 145 RBIs and 107 runs. He also led the league in total bases and doubles and like Brett won a Gold Glove.
Mattingly, whose Yankees finished two games behind Toronto in the AL East, had 367 points in the voting and 23 first-place votes to 274 and 5 for Brett.
A good case could be made for Brett, regardless of his postseason accomplishments that would have made him a shoo-in, as deserving of MVP based on the regular season. A side-by-side look at Brett and Mattingly in 1985, with their league rankings if in the top 10:
Brett Mattingly
.335 (2) BA .324 (3)
.436 (2) OBP .371
.585 (1) SLG .567 (2)
1.022 (1) OBP .939 (2)
30 (7) HR 35 (4)
112 (5) RBI 145 (1)
107 (5) R 107 (6)
8.3 (3) WAR 6.4 (9)
Brett outranks Mattingly in all but the two main power categories, homers and RBIs. The Yankee is ahead significantly in RBIs, traditionally a predictor of MVP titles, especially before the emergence of sabermetrics.
But also significantly, Brett is ahead by a wide margin in WAR, the all-purpose wins above replacement metric that is widely used now to measure a player's worth.
The league leader that year in WAR? Mattingly's teammate, Rickey Henderson with 9.9.
But you or the California Angels didn't really need sabermetrics to realize Brett Saberhagen's dominance on Sept. 30, 1985. Saber-metrics, indeed.
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