Angels can’t Hit It Big--Even in Texas--6-0 : Brett Leads Tie-Clinching Royals’ Win

The first standing ovation wasn’t all for George Brett of the Kansas City Royals. He had to share this one with the scoreboard, which had just flashed the final score from Texas: Rangers 6, Angels 0.

The Royals would clinch a tie for the title if they could hold on to their lead over the Oakland A’s Friday night. They did, winning, 4-2.

But holding on wasn’t easy. A 3-0 advantage melted to 3-2 on a Tony Phillips triple in the sixth inning and a Dave Kingman home run in the seventh. Mark Gubicza, the pitcher who started things for Kansas City, wavered and weakened--finally winding up a witness to the proceedings.

The Royals needed to restore some order. And Brett--as has been the case so often during this, the Royals’ week of redemption--was just the guy to do it.

Brett didn’t get good wood on Jose Rijo’s 1-and-2 pitch. “A dad-gum shank,” Kansas City Manager Dick Howser called it.

But shanks in this park, on the fickle Royals Stadium AstroTurf, can produce wondrous things. Inside-the-park home runs, for instance. The Angels know. The same guy, two nights earlier, had done them in with a drive to right.

This fly was directed down the left-field line, but when A’s outfielder Jose Canseco belly-flopped and came up empty-handed, the result was the same. Baseball to the wall, Brett around the bases.

The cushion had been delivered, and the Royals were on their way to victory. The West had been won.

Or at least half of it.

The crowd of 19,694 sensed this right away. As soon as Brett crossed home plate, he was greeted with standing ovation No. 2.

And this one belonged all to him.

Should the Royals clinch outright possession of the AL West championship today, some might also say that this title belongs all to Brett. In one week, Brett has turned around a pair of seasons--the Royals’ and his own.

The Royals appeared in critical condition as they flew home to Kansas City for their final 1985 homestand last Sunday. Two losses in Seattle and three straight in Minnesota sent the Royals staggering into their showdown with the Angels.

Their slide coincided with Brett’s horrid hitting during the month of September, a drought he termed “one of the worst months I’ve had in a long time.”

A .314 career hitter slumped through the stretch with a .223 September. In the process, his batting average, once high enough to challenge Wade Boggs for the league leadership, had slipped from .356 to .328.

Then came October. And the Angels.

Move over, Reggie. Meet Mr. October, Midwest version.

Brett hit three home runs in four games against the Angels. The Royals noted each of the home runs with a victory.

“He’s obviously the key to this team,” Gubicza said. “Everybody’s been waiting for him to get going. Now, we’re just going to ride him on in.”

Gubicza (14-10) was along for the ride Friday. Brett gave him a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning with a run-scoring infield single.

The A’s uprising led to Gubicza’s dismissal with two outs in the seventh, but there to bail him out was Dan Quisenberry, who earned his 37th save of the season, and Brett.

Again.

Brett led off the bottom of the seventh by lacing the ball just inside the left-field line. Canseco, the A’s gangly rookie left fielder, had encountered trouble all night, competing against the lights, the winds and the plastic grass. He had no chance this time.

Canseco dived, but not nearly in time. The ball bounced . . . and bounced . . . and bounced. It traveled so long and so far that Brett, even with a heavily taped left ankle, supporting a sprained ligament, was able to traverse the bases with ease.

After needing 11 major league seasons to hit his first two inside-the-park home runs, Brett had doubled that total in three days.

“It’s amazing what steroids will do for a guy,” Quisenberry joked. “He’s a charge, isn’t he?”

After he sparked a 4-0 victory over the Angels with an inside-the-park homer Wednesday night, Brett vowed he would never do it again. “I like the other way better,” he said. “It’s probably not as exciting for the crowd, but it’s less work.”

Darn the luck. Friday, he had to make like Willie Wilson, who has 17 career inside-the-park jaunts, again.

“I learned from watching Willie,” Brett said with a slow grin. “It’s funny. As soon as (Canseco) dove for the ball, it was the same exact thing as the other night. I saw the ball bounce up and go to the wall.

“This one was easier, my footwork was right in stride. It was like a hurdler, clearing every hurdler in stride.”

By the time Brett had run this race, the crowd had returned to its feet. He understood the reason for the first standing ovation. Brett had been watching the scoreboard, too.

“I saw (the Angels) were down, 6-0, in the ninth and I figured Texas wouldn’t blow it,” Brett said. “California has not been swinging the bats well at all. When you get beat three times in four big games and only score six runs, and then fall down, 6-0, you don’t expect them to come back.

“A lot of people are pressing there right now. We’d be pressing now, if we were in their situation.”

The Royals have avoided that situation largely because of Brett. Late Friday night, Howser was pitching Brett for the American League’s Most Valuable Player trophy.

“Those are MVP numbers and Hall of Fame numbers he’s throwing out there,” Howser said. “I don’t know how anybody can have any better numbers.

‘Even a critic would be hard to fault George this year. They used to say he didn’t hit home runs. He has done that this year (29 total). They used to say he didn’t play a lot of games. He’s been playing (154 games) this year.

“A lot of people were concerned that because he played so many games, he was starting to run out of gas. My own feeling is that when George falls from .355 to .330, he’s going to crank it up again.”

Today, Brett and the Royals need to crank it up just one more time. Twenty-game winner Bret Saberhagen gets the starting call. Champagne time is near.

It could come before the Royals’ 5:35 p.m. (PDT) game against the A’s, with the Angels and Texas playing a nationally televised game in the early afternoon.

Brett isn’t much for suspense. He’d like to see a Ranger victory.

“Yeah, I’d like to watch four innings at home, laugh a little on the way here and watch the last few innings in Dick’s office,” Brett said. “Then, Dick can tell me, ‘Play two or three innings and go on in.’ ”

Then, George Brett, the Royals’ resuscitator, can finally rest.