Magic Royals moments, October 1985: Oh Danny boy, did you deliver

Danny Jackson had key victories at each of the key junctures of the season -- in the final week of the regular season, in the American League Championship Series and the World Series -- to help the Kansas City Royals win their first world title. 

By Phil Ellenbecker
   After the Kansas City Royals had wrapped up their second trip to the World Series in 1985, George Brett had a pretty direct answer for NBC announcer Dick Enberg when asked what turned it around for the Royals in their comeback from being down 3-1 to Toronto in the American League Championship Series.

  "Maybe Danny Jackson, they had runners on second and third with nobody out and he held them in Game 4," said Brett, who'd made quite the difference himself in the series by batting .348 with three homers to earn MVP honors. "That might have been the big one, Game 4. Or  Game 5, it was Game 5, and he ended up pitching a shutout."  

  Danny Jackson had a rather uneven, unpredictable baseball career — 112-131, 4.01 ERA over 15 seasons — some may say very typical of a left-hander. But when the Royals absolutely needed him most in 1985, he was rock-solid dependable. The southpaw in his first full season in the major leagues was right on. 

 Consider these up-against-the-wall performances that helped the Royals first wrap up an American League West title, then the ALCS and then the World Series:
   —With the Royals and California Angels tied atop the West entering the night of Thursday, Oct. 3, Jackson gave up one run over 8 2/3 innings as Kansas City beat California 4-1 at Royals Stadium to go ahead for good. The Royals clinched two days later.
   —With Toronto leading 3-1 in the ALCS, Jackson shut out the Blue Jays 2-0 on Sunday, Oct. 13, at Royals Stadium. That sent the series back to Exhibition Stadium, where the Royals won the final two games.
   —With St. Louis leading 3-1 in the World Series, Jackson pitched a complete-game five-hitter as the Royals won 6-1 on Thursday, Oct. 24, to send the series back to K.C., where they won the final two for the first world title in the 16-year history of the franchise.

  So in those three pivotal, season-prolonging outings, Jackson, who was third on the Royals in wins in '85 with a 14.12 record and 3.42 ERA, threw nearly three complete games, 26 2/3 innings, and allowed two earned runs. That's a Madison Bumgarner-like ERA of 0.65.
   He didn't exactly handcuff opposing batters, allowing 24 hits in the three games including 11 in one, but he walked only four, and this was a pitcher who could be somewhat shaky with his control — three times in his league's top 10 in walks. But stingy with the gopher ball — two times a league leader in fewest homers allowed per nine innings — he didn't surrender any homers in these three games.
  For sheer clutch performance, Jackon's World Series triumph might have been the best. Cardinals fans were set to celebrate their second World Series title in four years with a victory Oct. 24. But Jackson and the Royals stifled those hopes by decisively turning back the Redbirds.
  The Cardinals got to Jackson for a run in the first inning on back-to-back doubles by Tom Herr and Jack Clark, but it was a relative breeze from there for the pitcher who'd lost 3-1 to the Cardinals in the Series opener. Jackson retired St. Louis in order in five of the remaining eight innings, worked out of a two-out, bases-loaded jam in the third and helped himself out with a pickoff in the fifth. Besides five hits allowed, he walked three. He struck out five.
  Meanwhile, his teammates gave him a 4-1 cushion through two innings and tacked on insurance runs the last two. Willie Wilson went 2 for 5 with a two-run triple in a three-run third; Lonnie Smith was 2 for 4 with two runs scored including K.C.'s first in the first inning; and Pat Sheridan was 2 for 5 with a double that scored the Royals' final run.

Danny Jackson gets Tom Nieto to ground to shortstop Bianca Biancalana, who flipped to Frank White at second base for a force out that closed the Royals' 6-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 5 of the 1985 World Series. The win kept the Royals alive in the Series and sent it back to Kansas City, where the Royals won the final two games. (YouTube screen grab)

  In keeping Kansas City alive against Toronto on Oct. 13, Jackson squeezed out a of couple of jams in the middle innings and then finished with a flourish, retiring the final 10 batters he faced. He walked none while striking out six in an eight-hitter.
  The Blue Jays had runners at second and third with no outs in the fifth, as Brett referred to in his interview with Enberg, and the based loaded with two out in the sixth. Jackson left them stranded each time. He also got help from an outfield assist by Smith in left in the fourth.
  The Royals played small ball to score all the runs Jackson would need. Smith, who went 3-for-4 in the game, led off the bottom of the first with a double, stole third and scored on Brett's ground out. Frank White reached on a bunt single leading off the second and came around to score on Darryl Motley's sacrifice fly.
  Jackson began his late-season tight-rope walk Oct. 3 against California, coming within one out of a shutout despite giving up 11 hits. He left two runners stranded in the first and the eighth, and coaxed double play balls to get out of the fifth and seventh. Bobby Grich spoiled the shutout with a two-out RBI triple in the ninth, and Dan Quisenberry came on to get the final out.
  Homers provided all the Royals' offense. Frank White had a two-run shot in the first inning, and Steve Balboni and Brett had solo homers in the fourth and fifth.
  Jackson went on to pitch in four more postseasons in his career with varying success.
  In 1990 with Cincinnati he started two games and went 1-0 in the NLCS with a 1.38 ERA. He started once in the Reds' World Series sweep and was knocked out after 2 2/3 innings in Cincy's 5-4 10-inning Game 2 win. In 1992 with Philadelphia he lasted just 1 2/3 innings in a loss to Atlanta in the NCLS. The next year he beat Atlanta in his NLCS start, giving up one run over 7 2/3 innings.

  When he got his third chance to pitch in a World Series that year, he was the losing pitcher in Game 3, giving up four runs in five innings of a 10-3 loss to Toronto, which won the Series in six games.
  In his next-to-last season, with St. Louis in 1996, he gave up three runs in one three-inning stint in the NLCS as the Cardinals fell to Atlanta.
 Jackson's final postseason mark was 4-3 with a 3.30 ERA.
 Jackson's 14 wins in 1985 were his most in three full seasons with the Royals. Traded to the Reds in 1988, he led the NL in wins with 23 and in complete games. That was two more wins than he had in his next four seasons.
  It was that kind of career for DJ. But when the money was on the line in October 1985, Jackson was one money pitcher.