1989 American League Championship Series

1989 American League Championship Series
Team (Wins) Manager(s) Season Oakland Athletics (4) Tony La Russa 99–63, .611, GA: 7 Toronto Blue Jays (1) Cito Gaston 89–73, .549, GA: 2
Dates	October 3–8
MVP	Rickey Henderson (Oakland)
Umpires	Dave Phillips (crew chief) Dan Morrison Dale Ford Derryl Cousins Rick Reed Steve Palermo
Broadcast
Television	NBC
TV announcers	Bob Costas and Tony Kubek
Radio	CBS
Radio announcers	Brent Musburger and Johnny Bench
← 1988 ALCS 1990 →

The 1989 American League Championship Series was played between the Oakland Athletics and the Toronto Blue Jays from October 3 to 8. A dominant Oakland team took the Series four games to one, en route to a sweep of their cross-bay rivals, the San Francisco Giants, in a World Series marred by the destructive Loma Prieta earthquake.

Background

The Athletics finished the 1989 regular season as the best overall team in baseball, with a 99–63 record (.611). They easily won the American League West division title by seven games over the Kansas City Royals. The Blue Jays finished the 1989 regular season with an 89–73 record (.549). However, their winning of the American League East division title was by a much narrower margin: only two games over the Baltimore Orioles.

Summary

The ALCS began with Games 1 and 2 being played at the

Athletics left fielder Rickey Henderson was named the ALCS MVP. During the Series, Henderson had doubled, tripled, hit two home runs (in Game 4), and drove in 5 runs.

Oakland Athletics vs. Toronto Blue Jays

Oakland won the series, 4–1.

Game summaries

Game 1

Tuesday, October 3, 1989, at

The A's went off as heavy favorites largely due to their status as defending American League champions. The Blue Jays had been in second place much of the year before catching and passing the Baltimore Orioles on the final weekend of the season. Both teams threw their aces against each other, as Dave Stewart, the 20-game winner, took the mound for Oakland against Dave Stieb for Toronto.

In the bottom of the first inning,

Mark McGwire tied the game with a homer to lead off the bottom of the sixth. Then, after Tony Phillips reached with one out, Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston pulled Stieb and replaced him with the recently acquired Jim Acker. Phillips stole second and stayed on an infield single by Mike Gallego, and Acker then hit Rickey Henderson with a pitch to load the bases with one out. Needing a double play to get out of the inning, Acker did his job by inducing Carney Lansford to ground to Fernandez. He got the first out by firing to Liriano at second, but Rickey Henderson upended Liriano, who threw the ball into the stands, scoring both Phillips and Gallego to give the A's their first lead of the game, 5–3.

It stayed that way until the bottom of the eighth, when Blue Jays reliever Duane Ward replaced Acker. After striking out Terry Steinbach, Ward walked Phillips. Gallego hit a double in the gap, but a perfect relay nailed Phillips at the plate for the second out while Gallego moved to third. Rickey Henderson then walked and stole second, and Gallego scored on a wild pitch by Ward. On the wild pitch, Henderson moved to third and subsequently scored on Lansford's single. The game was now out of reach, 7–3, as the A's prevailed to take Game 1. Henderson walked twice and reached as a hit batsman, stole two bases, and scored a run. Stewart got the win while Stieb was saddled with the loss.

Game 2

Wednesday, October 4, 1989, at

Game 2 saw the A's throw their number two starter, Mike Moore, against the Blue Jays' Todd Stottlemyre. All was quiet until the top of the third when the Blue Jays' Lloyd Moseby scored after singling, moving to second on a single and third on an error and coming home on a fielder's choice ground out to make it 1–0. The A's captured the lead in the bottom of the fourth with the 'Rickey Rally,' a familiar run-scoring method of bygone years. Rickey Henderson singled, stole second and then third, and came home on Carney Lansford's single to tie the game. Lansford then scored on Mark McGwire's double to give the A's a 2–1 lead. The game stayed close until the sixth.

In the bottom of the sixth, Dave Parker led off with a home run. After McGwire singled, Cito Gaston pulled Stottlemyre in favor of Jim Acker. Acker then gave up a double to Dave Henderson and a single to Tony Phillips that scored two more runs and made it a 5–1 Oakland lead. Gaston pulled Acker and replaced him with David Wells, who got the final two outs of the inning, but the game was for all intents and purposes over.

Another 'Rickey Rally' ensued in the seventh when Henderson walked, stole second, stole third, and scored on an error by Fred McGriff. In doing this, Henderson became the first player ever to steal four bases in a postseason game. The steal of third elicited a reaction from Blue Jays third baseman Kelly Gruber when Henderson walked the last several steps to the base because the catcher didn't throw. Gruber accused Henderson of showing up the Blue Jays in the post-game interview. Henderson's run made it 6–1 Oakland.

The Blue Jays put together a mini-rally in the eighth when they loaded the bases against Rick Honeycutt with nobody out and A.L. home run champion Fred McGriff at the plate. The A's countered by bringing in Dennis Eckersley, who minimized the damage by yielding a one-run single to McGriff and then giving up another run on a double play. Eckersley retired the Jays in order in the ninth, and the A's won 6–3 to go up two games to none in the series. Moore was the winning pitcher, Stottlemyre the loser, and Eckersley got his fifth save in his last five chances in the ALCS dating back to 1988.

Game 3

Friday, October 6, 1989, at

The two teams arrived in Canada for the first-ever post-season game in the new Toronto Skydome. The A's were looking to take a commanding 3–0 series lead while the Blue Jays needed a win to get back into the series. The game pitted Storm Davis against Blue Jays starter Jimmy Key. As was the case in the first two games, the team that scored first lost.

The A's scored in the top of the first without benefit of a hit. Key walked both Rickey Henderson and Carney Lansford. Henderson moved up on Canseco's fly out and scored on McGwire's sacrifice fly to give the A's a 1–0 lead. In the third, Henderson continued his series dominance by doubling, stealing third (his seventh steal of the series in just 21 innings), and scoring on a Lansford single to give the A's a 2–0 lead. When Dave Parker homered in the fourth, the A's had a 3–0 lead to go with their series momentum.

But the Blue Jays responded in the bottom of the fourth. They loaded the bases on a walk to Moseby and singles by Mookie Wilson and Fred McGriff. George Bell hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Moseby and cut the lead to 3–1. Tony Fernández then doubled to right, sending Wilson and McGriff home with the tying runs. Fernandez also moved to third when Canseco misplayed the ball in right field. When Ernie Whitt singled, Fernandez scored to give the Jays the lead and bring the crowd back into the game cheering wildly.

The score stayed 4–3 until the bottom of the seventh. With one out and runners at first and third,

In the last two innings, Acker and closer Tom Henke only faced seven batters, getting six outs and giving up a walk to McGwire. The last out was, appropriately enough, Rickey Henderson, who grounded out to Fernandez to end the game. The win by the Blue Jays was their first post-season win since Game 4 of the 1985 ALCS. Prior to this game, they had lost their previous five contests in LCS play. Key was the winning pitcher while Storm Davis was the loser. The result cut the A's series lead to two games to one in the best-of-seven series.

Game 4

Saturday, October 7, 1989, at

Game 4 was a critical game for both teams. Toronto could guarantee a return of the series to Oakland with a win while the A's would gain a significant lead of three games to one if they prevailed. The match-up featured a former Cy Young winner, Mike Flanagan (1979) against a future one (1990), Bob Welch.

The game was scoreless until the third when

The Blue Jays got a run back in the fourth, but it was disappointing because they loaded the bases with nobody out and only scored once. In the top of the fifth, however,

Game 5 was the mirror image of Game 4: an early A's lead and a Blue Jays comeback that fell just short of victory. The end result was a 4–3 win for the A's and a return trip to the Fall Classic to face their Bay Area neighbors, the San Francisco Giants. The game was also a rematch of Game 1 aces Dave Stewart for Oakland and Dave Stieb for Toronto.

Once again, it was Rickey Henderson creating havoc for the Blue Jays. Henderson again walked—his seventh of the Series—and again stole second—his eighth stolen base of the Series—and came home on Canseco's single to give the A's a 1–0 lead less than four minutes into the game. In the third, Henderson tripled to right, scoring Walt Weiss to give the A's a 2–0 lead. It stayed that way until the seventh when Stieb tired.

1989 ALCS (4–1): Oakland Athletics over Toronto Blue Jays

Stellar performances and aftermath

Dennis Eckersley saved three games in three opportunities while Dave Stewart gave up only five runs in 16 innings, going eight full innings in both appearances and gaining the win in both the opener and the closer. Mark McGwire hit .389 with a homer while Dave Parker hit a miserable .188, but two of his three hits were home runs that made the difference in the first two games.

One of the most uneven performances for the A's belonged to Rick Honeycutt, who could not retire any of the six batters he faced in Games 2 and 3, but who came through for the A's at a critical juncture in Game 4.

The one Blue Jay who had a very good series was Tony Fernández, who hit .350, scored six runs, and stole five bases in a losing cause.

In 1992, the Blue Jays beat the Athletics in the American League Championship Series, on the way to their first World Series in franchise history.

References

External links

• 1989 ALCS at Baseball-Reference