1985 Kansas City Royals season
The team improved its record to 91–71 on the strength of its pitching, led by Bret Saberhagen's Cy Young Award-winning performance.
The World Series is remembered in Kansas City as the culmination of ten years of dominance by the Royals, during which they reached the playoffs seven times, with stars such as George Brett, Hal McRae and Willie Wilson.
The Royals opened the season at home on Monday, April 8, in a three-game series versus the Toronto Blue Jays.
In his second straight opening day start, Bud Black faced off against the Blue Jays' Dave Stieb and allowed only a single earned run on four hits as the Royals won, 2–1.
After their losses in Seattle, the Athletics returned home to win seven of their next nine games, and on April 21 were in a three-way tie for first with the Mariners and the California Angels.
With two six-game winning streaks, the team won thirteen of their next seventeen games to enter a first-place tie with the Angels on May 29, with a record of 25–19.
This stretch of games was highlighted by three complete-game shutouts pitched by Bret Saberhagen, Bud Black, and Charlie Leibrandt in which they allowed only a combined 8 hits and 4 walks.
With New York arriving in Kansas City to start a six-game home series on Monday, July 22, the Royals began a seven-game winning streak which was the longest in the season to that point.
The Royals won the third game on October 2 with Black pitching a complete-game shutout and allowing only five batters to reach first base.
The Royals hosted the Athletics for the final three games of the season while the Angels traveled to Arlington Stadium to battle the Rangers.
On October 4, the Royals defeated the Athletics by the score of 4–2, and the Angels were shut out, 6–0, by the Rangers' starting pitcher Dave Schmidt.
The division championship was claimed in a dramatic fashion on the following day as the Royals come from behind to defeat the Athletics in ten innings by the score of 5–4.
The 1985 World Series was played by National League rules, with no designated hitter, so the Royals were without the regular services of one of their best players, Hal McRae.
AL Kansas City Royals (4) vs NL St. Louis Cardinals (3) After the season these players became free agents: Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs; H = Hits; Avg.
