This was the fourth matchup between the two teams in the past five seasons, and Kansas City got a measure of revenge by beating the Yankees in three straight to advance to their first ever World Series.

Brett added a home run off Ron Davis in the seventh, and a Willie Wilson double off Tom Underwood in the eighth scored Darrell Porter and White to give Kansas City a 7–2 lead.

The Yankees, meanwhile, could not score against Gura after the back-to-back home runs of the second inning, and the Royals' hurler went the distance as his team drew first blood in the series with a 7–2 victory.

The Yankees came back with two in the fifth, with Graig Nettles hitting an inside-the-park home run and Willie Randolph lashing a double to right to score Bobby Brown.

The Royals led 1-0 on Frank White's fifth-inning homer until the bottom of the sixth inning when Oscar Gamble hit a ground ball up the middle with Reggie Jackson on second.

Yankee manager Dick Howser brought in hard-throwing Goose Gossage, who gave up a single to U L Washington, bringing up George Brett.

The ninth went one-two-three as the Royals and the long-suffering Kansas City baseball fans finally won the American League Pennant, getting revenge on the team that had eliminated them for three straight years.

Four men involved with the 1980 ALCS — Yankees manager Dick Howser, outfielder Bobby Murcer, and catcher Johnny Oates; and Royals pitcher Dan Quisenberry — subsequently died of brain cancer.

(Tug McGraw and John Vukovich of the Philadelphia Phillies, who defeated the Royals in that year's World Series, also succumbed to the disease, as did Ken Brett, who pitched for Kansas City in the 1980–81 regular seasons.)