Oct. 7, 1977 – ALCS Game 3: Royals 6, Yankees 2
- Sal Maiorana
- Oct 7, 2017
- 4 min read
KANSAS CITY – Because George Steinbrenner was not going to be able to attend Game 4 due to a function involving his daughter at the University of North Carolina, he needed to spit all his venom following the Yankees’ loss in Game 3, one that put them on the brink of elimination.
“Our sluggers aren’t hitting and that has killed us,” Steinbrenner said, referring to Reggie Jackson, Graig Nettles and Chris Chambliss who, through three games of this ALCS, were a combined 3-for-31 with all three hits singles. “They have to perform for us to get back into this thing. If they start hitting we can win. They say we can’t hit left-handed pitchers; we didn’t hit the right-hander tonight.”
That would be Dennis Leonard, Kansas City’s 20-game winner who many thought should have started Game 1 for the Royals, but he was saved for Game 3 in Kansas City because Whitey Herzog wanted to throw lefties Paul Splitorff and Andy Hassler in Yankee Stadium, a strategy that made sense.
Leonard was outstanding as he went the distance and limited the Yankees to four hits and a walk. The only runs he allowed came in the fifth when Lou Piniella’s RBI double cut the Royals lead to 2-1, and then a meaningless run in the ninth with Kansas City up 6-1 when Roy White doubled and scored after John Mayberry booted Jackson’s grounder at first base.
This was quite an achievement for Leonard who was painted as one of the goats of the 1976 ALCS. In his two starts against the Yankees last year, he was knocked out in the third inning of Game 2, and in the first inning without recording an out in Game 5. Combined in 2.1 innings, he allowed five runs on nine hits and two walks and did not strike out a batter.
George Brett and Hal McRae celebrate in the Royals clubhouse.
“Last year, it looked like Leonard didn’t have the confidence,” said Jackson, who served as a TV commentator for ABC during that series. “Tonight, he looked like he was confident. I’m swinging the bat good, I’m doing what I can. I was just beat at the plate tonight one-on-one.”
Things could have gone differently for Leonard had he not caught a break in the top of the first. Roy White slashed a line drive into the left-field corner and tried to turn a double into a triple and appeared to do so. Instead, umpire Bill Deegan called White out even though it looked like Hal McRae’s throw to George Brett was late.
Billy Martin argued to no avail, and in an era long before the advent of instant replay, the Yankees were out of luck. Leonard retired Thurman Munson for the third out, and the tone was set. “He blew the play,” Martin said of Deegan. “But I’m not taking anything away from Leonard, he pitched well and stopped us.”
White agreed it was a blown call. “I was really shocked when I heard him say ‘out.’ I was most definitely safe. I didn’t think the play was that close. (Brett) had to bring the ball down from chest high.”
Dennis Leonard dominated the Yankees in Game 3 with a complete game.
Mike Torrez started for the Yankees and got behind in the second when he walked Joe Lahoud, then allowed back-to-back singles to Darrell Porter and Fred Patek. The Royals made it 2-0 in the third when McRae doubled, Brett singled, and Al Cowens drove in the run with a groundout.
New York broke through when Nettles singled in the fifth and raced around to score on Piniella’s double, but the Royals matched that run in the bottom half on another RBI groundout by Cowens.
Then in the sixth, the game got away from the Yankees. Lahoud and Porter reached, and after Torrez retired Patek and Frank White, Martin called on Sparky Lyle to kill the threat. Here, Whitey Herzog sat down lefty-swinging Tom Poquette and sent in Amos Otis to pinch hit, and Otis came through with a two-run double down the left-field line as the largest crowd in Royals Stadium to date – 41,285 – went wild, chanting “We’re No. 1, we’re No. 1.”
Torrez expressed his displeasure about getting lifted. “I’m teed off because he took me out,” Torrez said. “If I can’t get Poquette out, I should quit the game.”
Martin did not second-guess himself. “I wouldn’t care who they put up there when we have Sparky. He pitches against everybody.”
Martin’s closing salvo of the night was his basically guaranteeing a victory in Game 4. “After we beat Larry Gura (an ex-Yankee who clashed with Martin) tomorrow, I’ll come back with my best, and that means Ron Guidry. And then it’s one game. I know we’re going to beat Gura. My only worry is that he doesn’t get hurt on the way to the ballpark in an accident or anything. Maybe I ought to send a bodyguard to his house.”
Steinbrenner left the stadium with one final thought. “If we don’t win tomorrow, we don’t deserve to win it,” Steinbrenner said, apparently failing to recognize that if the Yankees didn’t win tomorrow, their season was over.
In Philadelphia, the Dodgers took control of the NLCS with a dramatic 6-5 victory over the Phillies. Los Angeles entered the ninth inning down 5-3, and they were down to their final out. But Vic Davalillo bunted for a pinch hit against closer Gene Garber, Manny Mota drilled a pinch-hit RBI double, Davey Lopes tied the game with a RBI single, and Bill Russell delivered the game-winner with a single.
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