History of the World Series – 1984
The 1984 Detroit Tigers were simply too good. For everyone. They won 35 of their first 40 regular-season games, sprinted to the AL East championship with 104 victories and a 15-game bulge over their nearest competitor, swept the Royals in the AL Championship Series, then made short work of the Padres in the World Series.
And short work is what Detroit really made of San Diego’s starting pitching. In the last four games of a five-game dismissal from the fall classic, the Padres saw two of their starters fail to get through the first inning, one unable to last through the second and the other not effective enough to survive the third.
Mark Thurmond was the long-distance man among the Padres’ Series starters, going five innings in Game 1. Just long enough to lose. Nursing a 2-1 lead in the first Series game ever played in San Diego, Thurmond yielded a two-out, two-run homer to Larry Herndon in the fifth.
The Padres had their chances. Graig Nettles and Terry Kennedy singled to open the San Diego sixth, but Detroit’s Jack Morris proceeded to strike out the side. Then, in the seventh, Kurt Bevacqua slapped a leadoff double into the right-field corner but was thrown out trying for a triple. Morris was in control the rest of the way — he finished with nine strikeouts — and Detroit broke on top in this Series with a 3-2 triumph.
Manager Sparky Anderson’s Tigers knocked Ed Whitson from the box with three first-inning runs in Game 2, but Padre relievers Andy Hawkins and Craig Lefferts and designated hitter Bevacqua combined to give San Diego one bright Series moment. Hawkins, taking over with two out in the first, pitched 5 1/3 innings of one-hit ball and Lefferts struck out five Tigers in three scoreless innings. And with San Diego trailing 3-2 in the fifth, Bevacqua belted a three-run homer off Dan Petry. The Padres’ 5-3 edge held up as the San Diego bullpen choked off the Detroit offense.
In Game 3 at Detroit, San Diego pitchers issued 11 walks — all in the first five innings — and the Tigers strolled to a 5-2 triumph. Detroit got two of its runs when Herndon drew a walk with the bases loaded in the second inning and Kirk Gibson was hit by a pitch with the bases full in the third. Padres starter Tim Lollar gave up four hits (including a two-run homer to Marty Castillo), four walks and four runs before departing with two out in the second inning. Milt Wilcox worked six innings for Detroit and got the victory.
Morris and Alan Trammell then put Dick Williams’ Padres on the brink of elimination. Morris, who spun a no-hitter in the first week of the regular season and went on to post 19 victories, recorded his second complete game of the Series, hurling a five-hitter in Game 4. Trammell accounted for all of the Tigers’ runs in the 4-2 decision by rocking Eric Show for two-run homers in the first and third innings.
Kirk Gibson put on a big show for the Tigers in Game 5, blasting upper-deck home runs in the first and eighth innings good for five RBIs. His first homer came off Thurmond, who retired only one batter this time around.
Gibson also stood out on the basepaths. When the game was tied 3-3 in the fifth, he raced home from third with the tie-breaking run on a shallow fly ball to right field that Padres second baseman Alan Wiggins wound up catching.
Lance Parrish also homered for the Tigers, who sailed to a Series-clinching 8-4 victory. Petry again stumbled as the Tigers’ starter, but relievers Aurelio Lopez and Willie Hernandez (who combined for a 19-4 regular-season record and 46 saves) shackled the Padres.
While Petry may have stumbled in his starting roles, San Diego’s rotation out and out took a pratfall. In 10 1/3 innings, starters Thurmond, Whitson, Lollar and Show had a combined 13.94 earned-run average.
The triumph made Anderson, manager of the 1975 and 1976 champion Cincinnati Reds, the first to guide teams from both leagues to Series crowns.
