Voice of Mark Gubicza
By Greg Echlin
When Kansas City Royals Opening Day starter Brad Keller stretched his streak of 54 consecutive innings pitched without giving up a homer earlier this season, at the time it was the longest active streak at the majors. But it didn’t come close to the team record set by Mark Gubicza.
Between the end of 1988 and the early part of ‘89, the two years Gubicza was an American League All-Star, he pitched 133 and one-third straight innings without surrendering a homer.
“I was never really a guy who gave up a lot of homeruns,” said Gubicza, who returned to K.C. as a member of the Los Angeles Angels television broadcast team. “But it was pretty cool when it (the streak) happened.”
On the way to winning his 19th game in the only 20-victory season of his 14-year career, Gubicza gave up a homer to his one-time Royals teammate, Steve Balboni, Sept. 21, 1988, in Seattle. Balboni set a Royals one-season record—since broken by Mike Moustakas—of 36 homers in the Royals’ ’85 World Series championship season. In ’88, Balboni hit 21 homers for the Mariners after he was released by the Royals in late May.
“Even though we talk about launch angles now in baseball, he hit down on the baseball,” said Gubicza. “It created amazing backspin and he was so strong.”
The homerless streak continued until a return trip to the Kingdome in Seattle, June 7, 1989, when Jay Buhner launched one into the seats. Despite Buhner’s blast, the Royals won that game, too, 9-6.
“That’s what it should be all about. The Ws,” said Gubicza, who considered himself a groundball pitcher, even with the artificial surface at Kauffman Stadium that allowed the ball to scoot through the holes on the infield a lot quicker.
“My goal was always (to) keep the ball on the ground,” he said.
Keller surrendered the long ball to Tyler Naquin of the Cleveland Indians, April 13, to end his streak that started at the end of last season. Keller ended 2018 with 34 straight innings without allowing a homer and carried it over to this season. Earlier in ’18, Keller completed 63 and one-third consecutive innings of homerless ball.
Still, it was a long way from the team standard the Gubicza set during his Royals Hall of Fame career.