Oct. 8, 1977 – ALCS Game 4: Yankees 6, Royals 4
- Sal Maiorana
- Oct 8, 2017
- 5 min read
KANSAS CITY – Looking back with 40 years of hindsight, it has to be considered somewhat of a medical miracle that Sparky Lyle’s arm didn’t fall off in 1977.
The left-handed reliever would ultimately be rewarded for all his yeoman’s work by being voted the Cy Young Award winner, but he must have carried an ice bucket around with him for two months after the season ended in order to treat his arm after the abuse inflicted upon it by Billy Martin.
And to think, his performance in Game 4 didn’t even factor in the Cy Young voting.
Starter Ed Figueroa, handed an early 4-0 lead, had nothing and he was getting knocked around like a wounded prize fighter laying on the ropes, so after he told Martin his side was hurting, the manager brought in Dick Tidrow with men on first and second with one out, hoping he could protect a lead that had shrunk to 5-3.
“It was hurting,” said Figueroa. “I called Billy and told him. We had a 5-3 lead and I didn’t want to mess up the game.” Tidrow nearly did as he was greeted by a RBI double by Frank White, and after retiring Tom Poquette, Tidrow walked Hal McRae.
Thus, with lefty-swinging George Brett due up, and the game at an early tipping point, Martin signaled to the bullpen for his closer. Yes, his closer, in the fourth inning. Lyle got Brett to fly out to left, and from there he allowed just two hits across 5.1 scoreless innings as the Yankees were able to avoid elimination.
Graig Nettles blows up Frank White at second base in the first inning.
Lyle’s Herculean effort came on the heels of pitching 2.2 innings less than 24 hours earlier in Game 3. “The tireder I am, the better I pitch,” said Lyle. “I was glad Billy left me in the night before, even though I was getting shelled. I needed to wear myself out some. I knew damn well Billy wanted me to finish up when he called me. And I knew I’d throw better the longer I pitched.”
Royals manager Whitey Herzog conceded after watching Lyle get 16 outs from the 17 batters he faced, “I’ll tell you, he was amazing.”
Lyle led the American League with 72 appearances in the regular season and he also had a league-high 60 games finished while his 26 saves were second behind the 31 by Boston’s Bill Campbell. The Yankees probably would not have won the AL East without him, and they most certainly would have been flying back to New York after this game, having failed to defend their American League championship.
“He’s been a savior for us the whole year,” said Graig Nettles.
Rather than packing their bags, the Yankees set up a juicy, deciding Game 5 with Ron Guidry slated to start on just two days’ rest. Yes, it was a different baseball world indeed 40 years ago.
“We know we can beat ‘em,” said Lou Piniella. “We did it in the fifth game last year. They don’t know if they can. I saw ‘em puttin’ away these crates of Jacques Bonet champagne that they were all ready to pop today. I told the guy who was packin’ ‘em away, they’re still going to be in your cellar tomorrow night.”
The Yankees jumped on Royals starter Larry Gura – just as Billy Martin boldly predicted – for six hits and four runs inside three innings. “I thought he pitched very well,” Martin said with his tongue firmly implanted in his cheek.
Mickey Rivers started a four-hit day by lacing Gura’s first pitch for a double and later scored on a Thurman Munson groundout. In the second, Willie Randolph singled and scored on Bucky Dent’s double, and Dent raced home on Rivers’ single. And in the third, Munson doubled and Reggie Jackson walked, forcing Herzog to lift Gura in favor of Marty Pattin. He gave up a RBI single by Piniella that made it 4-0.
“I don’t understand it,” said Herzog. “Larry never threw a changeup or a curve. Just hard stuff. I really don’t know why.” The bigger question was why Herzog opted for Gura rather than 18-winner Jim Colborn, but an answer never really came.
The Royals began getting to Figueroa in the third as they strung together three hits and a walk to plate two runs, the second coming on Brett’s triple. But in the fourth, New York scored what proved to be the winning run when the Royals Fred Patek and John Mayberry each made errors that eventually allowed Graig Nettles to rip a RBI single off Pattin to make it 5-2.
Nettles’ hit was particularly impressive, considering he’d been seeing double ever since the first inning when he tried to annihilate Frank White breaking up a double play at second base and smashed his head into White’s knee.
Graig Nettles tags out John Mayberry at third base.
“It was meant like retaliation for what happened the other night,” he said, referring to Hal McRae’s attack on Willie Randolph. “I couldn’t see forms for at least three innings. The doctor came down and at first thought it was a mild concussion. And every inning he’d say, ‘You all right?” And I’d say, ‘Yeah.’ But in the bottom of the first, second and third innings, I honestly could not make out the number on the back of my own pitcher from third base. Frightening? You bet it was. If this had been a regular-season game, I’d have been out of there in a hurry.”
After the Royals pulled within 5-4, neither team scored again until the ninth when Rivers singled and later scored on a fly ball by Munson. “When I got the sacrifice fly in the ninth for an insurance run,” said Munson, “I wondered if I’d done right. Shoot, Sparky don’t know what to do with a two-run lead. He gets all flustered.”
Not this time. He retired Patek, White and Joe Zdeb in order to end the game.
“I didn’t let it enter my mind that this was a must-win game for us,” said Lyle. “If I do that I might start thinking about too many other things.”
The Royals were irritated that they couldn’t put the Yankees away, but Darrell Porter couldn’t help but think his team would have a decided advantage in the finale. Paul Splitorff would be on regular rest, Guidry on very short rest, and what about Lyle?
“What’s he going to do tomorrow when they have to call on their ace in the bullpen?” asked Porter.
Lyle’s response? “Probably the most I can go tomorrow in the fifth game is five or six innings. After that I’ll have to play it by ear. Think maybe I’m kidding? Wait and see. I know what I can do.”
In the NLCS, the Dodgers finished off the Phillies in four games, winning the clincher 4-1 at Veterans Stadium as Tommy John went the distance with a seven-hitter while the Dodgers strafed Steve Carlton inside five innings. Dusty Baker hit an early two-run homer, and Los Angeles scratched out two runs in the fifth with the help of two walks, a wild pitch, and infield single.
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