1985 World Series Game 6: Bottom of the 9th inning
The St. Louis Cardinals are in Kansas City, playing the Royals. The Cards are up three games to two and hold a 1-0 lead in game six. The Cards had won a World Series in 1982, the Royals had never won a World Series.
Ken Dayley, a lefty, is the pitcher of record for the Cardinals. Whitey Herzog waits for the Royals to use Darryl Motley as a pinch hitter before bringing in righty Todd Worrell. Dick Howser counters with another pinch hitter, lefty Jorge Orta.
Orta watches one and fouls two. 0-2 count. Orta hits a weak chop, Clark fields it, throws to Worrell, safe. One of the most famous blown calls in World Series history. Three quick replays confirm Orta was out. The Cardinals argue and Whitey Herzog comes out. The biggest surprise in all this is that it took 1:10 from Orta hitting the bag to Steve Balboni stepping up to the plate. The call barely interrupted the flow of the game.
Now we've got Balboni, the power bat of the Royals. Announcers Al Michaels and Tony Kubek speculate on a bunt, but Balboni could win this game on one swing. First pitch is a pop up. Darrell Porter and Jack Clark converge near the 1B dugout and Clark whiffs on the pop up. It's precariously close to the dugout, there's no fence or barrier to keep players from falling in. Michaels notes that Clark was a career right fielder. "He came off the base and I'm not saying he made a mistake with the Motley ball..."
Todd Worrell is just throwing fastballs and trying to blow it past batters. The Royals are barely fouling these off. Balboni fouls the second pitch as Michaels notes Balboni is aiming for the freeway. But on the third pitch Balboni reaches and hits a hard grounder to LF. Orta to 2nd.
The most obvious move in the world. Onix Concepcion pinch runs for Balboni at first as the potential winning run. Herzog comes out for a mound conference. Worrell has thrown seven pitches, seven strikes.
Jim Sundberg is up to bunt. Two balls. Mound conference. One bunt foul lands in the seats. Second rolls foul on the first base line. Fifth pitch sees Sundberg lay down a two strike bunt. It bounces to the third base side of Worrell where he picks it and throws it to third. Orta is out at third, one out. Concepcion to second, Sundberg on at first base.
Hal McRae pinch hits for Buddy Biancalana. (The DH rule was not used in this World Series.) Ball one, low and outside. Second pitch is a rare slider. Porter clanks it, runners move up to second and third. Passed ball. The decision to go ahead and walk McRae is obvious.
That brings up Dan Quisenberry's spot, and Dane Iorg pinch hits. John Wathan pinch runs for McRae. (Wathan as a catcher once stole 36 bases in a season. His son Dusty stole 24 in his minor league career and I'm surprised he had that many.) The Cards are still up one, a double play wins the World Series. Taking stock of Worrell, he has thrown 16 pitches, 10 strikes.
First pitch to Iorg is low. Second pitch is lined to right, Andy Van Slyke is playing way too deep. Concepcion scores. Sundberg scores as the throw comes in but Porter can turn and make a tag fast enough. "He scores, we go to a seventh!" as Kansas City sets off the loudest celebration in their team's history.
My takeaways:
-The missed Orta call hurt, sure. By Win Probability Added it wasn't one of the five most important plays of the game.
-The Cardinals made two, maybe three key mistakes in that inning. The missed pop fly, the passed ball, and perhaps the Orta hit. It was like the Armando Galarraga play where the umpire's mistake compounded the original mistake that the first baseman fielded a ball the second baseman could've, and thrown to a pitcher running to the bag.
-The Royals had five offensive substitutions in that inning. Imagine that in today's game.
-There was absolutely no baserunning game at work here, beyond pinch runners. No runner stole or bluffed a steal, Worrell never threw over.
-Finally, this game was absolutely winnable for the Cardinals. They blew the World Series because they scored one run in their last 26 innings of baseball.
Postscript: The Cardinals shit the bed in game seven. John Tudor didn't make it out of the third inning. A sixth run fifth chased both Joaquin Andujar and Whitey Herzog. Bret Saberhagen pitched a complete game shutout as the Royals won their first World Series.
