Kansas City Royals History: 1985 Team Wins First World Series Title

Closing it Out

With one hand on the World Series trophy, Saberhagen continued to pitch lights out. It wasn’t until the seventh inning that St. Louis even put multiple baserunners on in the same frame. Saberhagen, of course, escaped unscathed with two flyballs. He coaxed another couple of flyballs to end the ninth inning — with the final one ending up in Motley’s glove out in right field.

Here’s Denny Matthews on the call:

The out off the bat of Andy Van Slyke capped a sensational World Series for Saberhagen. The MVP of the series, the right-hander made two appearances that each resulted in a complete game. Saberhagen gave up just one run and 11 hits between the two performances, while striking out 10 and walking just one. It’s the kind of series that puts your season in the conversation for best pitching season in franchise history.

Saberhagen was good in Game 3, but he was phenomenal in Game 7. The eventual Cy Young award winner that year allowed just five hits in his complete-game shutout. He only struck out two after punching out eight in Game 3. But Saberhagen seemed content letting his defense do the work. It also helped that he didn’t have much pressure on him for most of the game.