GAME 6 - "Dennis Manaces Jints" - Royals 4, Giants 1 (11 inn)

10/27

GAME 5 – Royals Stadium

Halicki vs Leonard

Royals 4, Giants 1 (11 inn)

The series shifted back to KC with the Jints hoping to win game 6 and force a decisive game 7 and the Royals obviously looking to finish things off without any un-needed drama.  What game 6 gave us was all the tension and drama any baseball fan could ask for.  KC broke the ice with a run in the bottom of the 3^rd when Frank White singled home Darrell Porter with one out.  White got a bit greedy and tried to take second on the throw to the plate, but was nailed by at least 4 feet when Chris Speier cut Garry Maddox’s throw off.  In the top of the 5^th the Jints evened things up.  Speier walked to lead off the inning, then moved up 90 feet on a Fuentes ground out that was too slow to turn into a DP.  Bobby Bonds lined a single through the hole that Hal McRae, not the greatest of fielders, charged hard and booted.  The ever savvy Speier saw the miscue and continued through third and scored easily to tie the game.  For the next 4 innings neither team could break through.  Giants starter Halicki handed the ball over to Bobby Bolin, who kept the Royals off the board all the way through the 10^th.  Dennis Leonard, who gave up just the one unearned run in the 5^th proved to be a horse going 10 innings and not yielding an unearned one.  The Quiz finally replaced Leonard in the 11^th and was spotless.  The Jints brought in Mike McCormick to start the bottom of the 11^th, so they could get the coveted lefty/lefty matchup vs George Brett, which looked to work in the Jints favor, but Brett dribbled a slow roller down the 3^rd base line and wound up on first with a cheap infield hit.  Since the Royals were built on small ball Brett used his legs and stole second, then wound up on third when Dietz airmailed his peg into center.  Cowens, who’s bat was hotter than Hades was given an unintentional intentional walk to put runners on the corners and once again give McCormick a lefty/lefty matchup vs Big John Mayberry.  With the count 1-1 Mac tried to fool Mayberry with a curveball that turned into a hanging helicopter, which never reached Dietz’ mitt.  Instead the ball wound traveling 340 feet over the rightfield fence, which led to the big man touching all the bases and the Royals winning the series in walk off fashion.

Royals Win Series 4-2