Jorge Orta - Kansas City Royals

Kansas City Royals

Orta made 438 plate appearances in 1984, his most since 1980. He and Hal McRae form a very successful lefty/righty platoon at DH with the Royals, as the Royals got a .305 batting average, ten home runs and 81 RBIs out of their DH position for the season. Orta also played some outfield, batting .310 with three home runs and fifteen RBIs in that role. His ninth inning sacrifice fly on September 12 defeated the Minnesota Twins to move the Royals into a first place tie in the A.L. West. The race came down to the wire between the Royals, Twins and California Angels with the Royals eventually winning the division by three games over each team. Orta may have been on the receiving end of some gamesmanship on September 20 when Angels catcher Bob Boone accused Orta of using a corked bat after his first at-bat of the game. His bat was confiscated by umpire Jim McKean, and the accusation turned out to be fruitless. Orta led off the fifth with a single with a different bat.

Orta's first trip to the post-season did not go as well as he may have hoped. The Royals were swept by the Detroit Tigers in the 1984 American League Championship Series. Orta went one-for-ten with a triple and an RBI.

The Royals stuck with the platoon of McRae and Orta at DH in 1985. Though the DH position's batting average dropped to .256, they hit nineteen home runs while driving in 114 runs. The 1985 season once again came down to the wire between the Royals and Angels. The Royals went on an eight game winning streak at the start of September to jump into first place in the A.L. West for the first time on September 6. They took first place for good when they took three of four games with the Angels in Kansas City toward the end of the season to head to the post-season for the second year in a row.