The Royals had a day off as they traveled from Detroit to Baltimore for a weekend series with the Orioles.
Meanwhile, the Royals’ Class AAA farm team, the Omaha Royals, swept a doubleheader against the Oklahoma City 89ers (then a Houston Astros affiliate) at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha. That wasn’t unusual, but the fact the Royals were no-hit in the first game and managed a win certainly was.
Although the Omaha club was hitting .296 as a team entering the game, 89ers pitcher Scipio Spinks held them without a hit for six innings; as part of a doubleheader, both games were seven innings. But Spinks battled his control, and it hurt him in the second inning.
Paul Schaal drew a walk to start the inning, then took second on a wild pickoff throw. Two wild pitches brought Schaal home. The second wild pitch came after Spinks had walked the bases loaded. Fred Rico drew one of those walks and scored Omaha’s second run when Oklahoma City’s catcher couldn’t corral a third strike on Billy Harris.
The no-hitter meant that Schaal’s 14-game hitting streak (which was 18 games overall counting his four games in Kansas City earlier in the month) came to an end.
Omaha then scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh in the second game to complete the doubleheader sweep and move into a first-place tie with Iowa in the American Association standings.
Today’s birthdays: Steve Braun (1948), Adam Moore (1984), Wily Peralta (1989)