Jack Morris and closer Willie Hernández had solid pitching performances as the Tigers blew out the Royals in Game 1 on the road.
However, the Tigers still prevailed as "Senor Smoke", Aurelio López, held the Royals scoreless in the ninth, tenth and eleventh innings, and Johnny Grubb hit a double off Dan Quisenberry in the 11th inning to drive in Darrell Evans and Ruppert Jones for the game winning runs.
This was the last AL pennant won by the Tigers until 2006, where they swept the Oakland Athletics before falling in the World Series.
Game 4 was a shootout that the Padres won 7–5 thanks to a walk-off two-run home run from Steve Garvey, evening the series.
This was the first of four consecutive losses in the NLCS for the Cubs - in 1989 they fell to the San Francisco Giants in five games, in 2003 they blew a 3–1 series lead to the Florida Marlins, and in 2015 they were swept by the New York Mets.
Game 5 was an offensive duel which was won by the Tigers as they clinched the title with a series-sealing three-run home run by Kirk Gibson in the bottom of the eighth inning.
The Tigers would return to the postseason in 1987, but were upset by the eventual World Series champion Minnesota Twins in five games in the ALCS.
The Tigers would return to the World Series in 2006 and 2012, but they lost both to the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants respectively.
This was the first year that both LCS would exclusively air on a national network, as each team's local broadcaster was no longer allowed to also televise coverage of the games.