Charlie Leibrandt and the Kansas City Royals were one out away Sunday night from balancing the books in the 82d World Series.
But the St. Louis Cardinals, behind Terry Pendleton`s three-run double, rallied for four runs in the ninth inning to take a 4-2 victory and a two-game advantage in the best-of-seven series.
The Series moves to St. Louis for Game 3 Tuesday night. The Royals` Bret Saberhagen (20-6) will face the Cardinals` Joaquin Andujar (21-12) in the first of three games at Busch Stadium.
Second baseman Frank White had three hits in three at-bats for the Royals, including a pair of doubles, a walk and a stolen base. George Brett socked a run-producing double in the fourth inning, when the Royals scored their runs.
In the Cardinals` ninth, Willie McGee led off with a double down the left-field line, and two outs later, scored on Jack Clark`s single to left. Clark swung away on a 3-0 pitch. Tito Landrum dumped a two-strike double to right, pushing Clark to third, then Leibrandt walked Cesar Cedeno
intentionally to load the bases.
Pendleton came through with a double to left that emptied the bases.
Kansas City manager Dick Howser belatedly brought in right-handed reliever Dan Quisenberry. He walked Darrell Porter intentionally then retired pinch-hitter Andy Van Slyke on a fly ball.
Cards` reliever Ken Dayley was credited with the win and Jeff Lahti earned the save.
The Royals had a runner in scoring position and no outs in the second inning but failed to score. White reached on an infield single and stole second. Cardinals` starting pitcher Danny Cox proceeded to strike out the side: Pat Sheridan, Jim Sundberg and Steve Balboni.
”Right now, this is the biggest game I`m going to pitch in my life,”
Cox said before the game. ”My legs are going to get shaky, but I guess if you don`t feel that, then there`s something missing inside you. I`ll overcome it. The big thing is, I just want to have fun. How many chances are we going to get to be here?
”I had to go out this year and use my change-up more because I couldn`t rely on my fastball and breaking ball. It was a matter of going out and working on it every day.
”Being a big person (6 feet 5 inches, 225 pounds), they might be expecting me to throw hard all the time, but I`m not that type of pitcher. I have to keep hitters off stride. I try to keep the ball down, make good pitches and let the defense do its job.”
The Cardinals had runners on first and third with Cedeno at bat in the fourth. Clark drew a two-out walk and Landrum poked a two-strike single to right, sending Clark to third. Cedeno hit a soft liner to shortstop Buddy Biancalana for the third out.
”I`m a much better pitcher than I was,” said Leibrandt, formerly with the Cincinnati Reds. ”Before, I prayed for a good game. Now I believe I will have a good game. Probably the best thing for me was to get away from Cincinnati, to have a change of scenery.”
Leibrandt, like Cox, relies on a change-up.
”It was a pitch I worked on with Cincinnati, but never had that much success with,” Leibrandt said. ”Now I have confidence and great control with it. I have as much confidence in it as with my fastball. That`s my bread-and- butter, my fastball and change-up.”
In the Royals` fourth, Willie Wilson led off with a single to right. Brett hopped on a high breaking pitch and pulled it into the right-field corner, driving in Wilson.
White followed with a double to left-center that drove in Brett. White moved to third on Sheridan`s ground out to first. White was stranded when Sundberg struck out and Balboni flied out to center.
Cardinals` manager Whitey Herzog managed Brett with the Royals but said he doesn`t know how to pitch to him.
”If George Brett is hot, you`re not going to get him out anyway,”
Herzog said. ”If he`s not hot, he`s still going to hit .300.”
Leibrandt mowed down the Cardinals through five innings with six strikeouts. Although the Cardinals have five switch-hitters on their squad, they had a 71-35 record this season against right-handed starters but just 30-26 against lefties.
”There aren`t that many left-handers in the National League,” shortstop Ozzie Smith said. ”But what are you going do? I`ll just turn around and bat right-handed.”
The Royals had a runner thrown out at the plate in the bottom of the seventh. Biancalana drew his second walk of the game and Leibrandt sacrificed him to second. Lonnie Smith lined a two-out single to left. Landrum fired a strike to the plate on the fly. Porter, the Cards` catcher, applied the tag for the third out.
Cox was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning, and Dayley relieved. Cox allowed two runs on seven hits in seven innings. He walked three and struck out five.
”We`re used to having our backs to the wall,” Sundberg said. ”You`ve got to try to win as many as you can at home because everybody plays better at home. We feel we can beat this club.”
”Hey, we can beat these guys,” Brett said. ”I still think we`re relaxed and we`re confident. We feel we can win.”
