The 1984 Major League Baseball postseason was the playoff tournament of Major League Baseball for the 1984 season. The winners of each division advance to the postseason and face each other in a League Championship Series to determine the pennant winners that face each other in the World Series.
In the American League, the Detroit Tigers returned to the postseason for the first time since 1972, and the Kansas City Royals returned to the postseason for the sixth time in nine years. In the National League, the Chicago Cubs were making their first postseason appearance since the 1945 World Series, and the San Diego Padres made their first postseason appearance in franchise history.
The playoffs began on October 2, 1984, and concluded on October 14, 1984, with the Tigers defeating the Padres in five games in the 1984 World Series. This was the first title since 1968 for the Tigers and their fourth overall.
Playoff seeds
The following teams qualified for the postseason:
American League
Detroit Tigers – AL East champions, 104–58
Kansas City Royals – AL West champions, 84–78
National League
Chicago Cubs – NL East champions, 96–65
San Diego Padres – NL West champions, 92–70
Playoff bracket
American League Championship Series
Detroit Tigers vs. Kansas City Royals
The Tigers swept the Royals to return to the World Series for the first time since 1968.
Jack Morris and closer Willie Hernández had solid pitching performances as the Tigers blew out the Royals in Game 1 on the road. In Game 2, the Tigers held a 3-2 lead going into the bottom of the eighth, but Hernández surrendered the tying run as Hal McRae tied the game with an RBI double. However, the Tigers still prevailed as "Senor Smoke", Aurelio López, held the Royals scoreless in the ninth, tenth and eleventh innings, and Johnny Grubb hit a double off Dan Quisenberry in the 11th inning to drive in Darrell Evans and Ruppert Jones for the game winning runs. When the series shifted to Detroit for Game 3, the Royals' Charlie Leibrandt pitched a complete game, but it wasn't enough as the Tigers won 1-0, off an RBI single from Marty Castillo which drove in Chet Lemon. This was the last time the Tigers won the AL pennant while playing at Tiger Stadium.
The Royals would return to the ALCS the next year, where they overcame a 3-1 series deficit against the Toronto Blue Jays en route to a World Series title. This was the last AL pennant won by the Tigers until 2006, where they swept the Oakland Athletics before falling in the World Series.
National League Championship Series
San Diego Padres vs. Chicago Cubs
This was the first postseason series for the Padres, as well as the first for the Cubs since the 1945 World Series. The Cubs jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the series, but the Padres came back to win three straight, advancing to the World Series for the first time in franchise history (in the process denying a rematch of the 1945 World Series between the Tigers and Cubs).
At first, it appeared as if this series would go Chicago's way. The Cubs embarrassed the Padres in a 13-0 rout in Game 1, and held off a rally by the Padres in Game 2 to take a 2-0 lead headed to San Diego. Then, things went south for the Cubs. Ed Whitson and closer Rich Gossage held the Cubs' offense to just one run scored as the Padres blew out the Cubs in Game 3, winning their first postseason game in franchise history. Game 4 was a shootout that the Padres won 7-5 thanks to a walk-off two-run home run from Steve Garvey, evening the series. In Game 3, the Cubs held a 3-0 lead after five innings, but the Padres responded with six unanswered runs across the sixth and seventh innings respectively to prevail 6-3 and clinch their first NL pennant. The Cubs' collapse in this series contributed to the popular mythology of the Curse of the Billy Goat.
This was the first of four consecutive losses in the NLCS for the Cubs - in 1989 they fell to the San Francisco Giants in five games, in 2003 they blew a 3 games to 1 series lead to the Florida Marlins, and in 2015 they were swept by the New York Mets. The Cubs wouldn't win their next pennant until 2016, where they went on to win the World Series.
The Padres would win the NL pennant again in 1998, against the Atlanta Braves in six games.
1984 World Series
Detroit Tigers (AL) vs. San Diego Padres (NL)
This was the first (and currently only) World Series in which the Tigers faced an expansion team. The Tigers defeated the Padres in five games to win their first championship since 1968, ending a 16-year championship drought for not just the Tigers, but the city of Detroit in general.