World Series Game 2: 88-MON 3, 72-KC 1

GAME 2 (Municipal Stadium - KC): (88)Expos 3, (72)Royals 1

The opening inning saw both teams make errors, yet only 1 run crossed the plate. KC starter Dick Drago was able to hold the Expos at bay by getting Galarraga to ground out and fanning Hubie Brooks to strand Tom Foley and Tim Raines. In the bottom of the inning Tom Foley (Goat & Hero) booted a grounder from Amos Otis to start things off. Cookie Rojas flied to left, but Foley followed things up by booting a second one in the inning when Richie Scheinblum found him with a sinking liner. Expo starter Pascual Perez was walking in circles and talking to himself by this point. A visit from his manager was needed, but none was forthcoming. Instead Perez walked the next two Royal hitters (Mayberry/Kirkpatrick) to force in a run...all with 2 outs. Finally a visit from the pitching coach calmed Perez down as he got Piniella to ground right back to the box to start a beautiful 1-4-2 DP to get out of the jam. Royal manager Milo Miller commented later how his team didn't maximize the damage they could do. Dick Drago got out of another jam in the second, but could not escape problem in the third when he violated one of the cardinal rules of baseball: Don't allow the opposing pitcher to reach base. Pascual Perez is a bad hitter for a pitcher, so Drago must have taken him so lightly that he grooved a 80 mph fastball that Perez punched into RF for a clean single. With the corners in Nixon still was able to bunt Perez over to second. That sacrifice wouldn't be needed when Tom Foley redeemed himself with a 2 run homer. Baseball is a game of redeeming qualities and no better form of redemption can occur when a guy who makes 2 errors in the 1st inning can hit a 2 run homer in the 3rd inning, which effectively puts him in the black on the ledger. Drago was definitely ticked that the light hitting Foley homered off him. To his credit he might have bent a bit (he walked the speedy Raines), but he didn't break as was evidenced by him forcing Galarraga to ground into a 5-4-3 DP. Both hurlers settled into a comfort zone and cruised until the top of the 7th when Montreal tacked on an insurance run off of a Luis Rivera homer that barely cleared the fence. Perez took the hill for the start of the 8th and after he got Scheinblum to line to Foley at second his day was done. Lefty specialist Joe Hesketh came on for the second game in a row to put down the big left bats in the Royals line-up and Tim Burke pitched an un-eventful 9th to put the Royals down in order and help the Expos to a 2 games to 0 lead in the series, which will head north across the border for games 3 and 4 + game 5 if necessary. Dick Drago pitched a fantastic game for the Royals, but his inability to get the Expos weaker hitter out burned him. Pascual Perez, was stellar after righting the ship after the challenging opening stanza. He gave up 1 unearned run in 7+ innings of work in a clutch and gutty performance.