Today in Blue Jays History: Kelly Gruber Hits for Cycle

31 Years Ago Today

Kelly Gruber hits for the cycle, the first one in Blue Jays history.

We were playing the Royals, and won big 15-8.

Gruber hit:

• A home run in the first inning off Royals starter Alan Bannister.
• A double in the second inning, again off Bannister.
• In the fourth inning he struck out.
• In the fifth inning he lined out.
• A triple in the seventh off Tom Gordon.
• A single in the eighth off Jerry Don Gleaton.

Kelly went 4 for 6 with 6 RBI.

He had a great start to the 1989 season. Coming into the game he was hitting .385/.457/.538. The game bumped his line up to .422/.481/.689.

Kelly would finish the season .290/.328/.448 with 18 home runs. Baseball Reference has him at a 5.0 WAR (in 1990 he would hit .274/.330/.512 with 31 home runs and hit bWAR was 4.2). FanGraphs has him at a 3.9 WAR in 1989 and a 4.3 WAR in 1990.

The lineups that day:

Dave Stieb got the start. He would only last 8 batters and only got 1 out. He gave up 4 hits, 3 walks and 6 earned. His start before that was a complete game 1 hitter and his start after was 8 innings, 4 hits. I don’t know what went wrong this day.

David Wells came in. He gave up a 2-run single to add to Stieb’s count. He would go 4 innings, allow 6 hits, 2 earned, 1 walk with 3 strikeouts. Tony Castillo pitched the last 4.2 innings, allowing 2 hits, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts with no earned runs. Wells got the win, Castillo got a 4.2 inning save, his first and only save of the season. He would pitch 17 games for the Jays that year and have a 6.11 ERA before being traded to the Braves in August. We hot Jim Acker in return.

Some other Jays hitters had good days:

• Pat Borders went 2 for 6, both doubles, with 2 RBI.
• George Bell went 3 for 5, with 2 doubles, a walk, and 2 RBI.
• Fred McGriff went 2 for 4, with a home run, 2 walks, and 2 RBI.
• Jesse Barfield went 2 for 5, with a home run and 3 RBI.

On the KC side:

• Floyd Bannister got the start. He went 1.2, gave up 9 hits, including the Gruber home run, 6 earned with 1 strikeout.
• Bret Saberhagen pitched the net 2.1 with 3 hits, 3 earned, 2 walks and 2 strikeouts. He gave up Barfield’s home run. He got the loss.
• Jeff Montgomery went 2 innings, allowed 3 walks with 2 strikeouts and no runs.
• Tom Gordon pitched 1 inning, gave up 2 hits, 3 earned, 3 walks with 2 strikeouts.
• Jerry Don Gleaton pitched the 8th. He gave up 3 hits, 3 earned, 1 walk.

On offense:

The Royals scored 8 runs without hitting a home run.

George Brett went 3 for 5. The Hall of Fame third baseman played first base most of that season. He was 34 by then.

Brad Wellman went 3 for 3 before coming out of the game for a pinch-hit appearance by Pat Tabler (he struck out).

Two sport star, Bo Jackson, went 1 for 3, with 2 walks. Jackson hit .256/.310/.495 with 32 home runs. He led the league in strikeouts with 172. He had a 2.7 bWAR. He had a very good 1990 season too, but then in 1991 he hurt his hip playing football. The injury ended his football career. He did play baseball for a couple more seasons but he wasn’t the same player.

Not that it matters, but Tom Lawless is one of those players that Minor Leaguer would have in a Sporcle quiz and I would never come up with the name.

Lawless had a 8 year MLB career, the last two with the Blue Jays. He was a utliity player who played every position except for SS and C in his career. Career he hit .207/.263/.258 in 343 games. I do remember having his baseball card.