1978 American League Championship Series

The 1978 American League Championship Series was held between the New York Yankees and the Kansas City Royals for the third consecutive year.

1978 American League Championship Series
Teams
Team (Wins) Manager Season
New York Yankees (3) Bob Lemon 100–63, .613, GA: 1
Kansas City Royals (1) Whitey Herzog 92–70, .568, GA: 5
DatesOctober 3–7
UmpiresLou DiMuro
Rich Garcia
Ron Luciano
Bill Kunkel
Dave Phillips
Terry Cooney
Broadcast
TelevisionABC
KBMA-TV (Royals' broadcast)
WPIX (Yankees' broadcast)
TV announcersABC: Keith Jackson, Howard Cosell and Jim Palmer
KBMA-TV: Denny Matthews, Steve Shannon and Fred White
WPIX: Frank Messer, Phil Rizzuto and Bill White
RadioCBS
Radio announcersErnie Harwell and Ned Martin

Background

The Royals won 92 games that year and won the Western Division title by five games over the Texas Rangers. The Yankees overcame a midseason deficit of 14 games and went on to win a one-game playoff against the Boston Red Sox to win the Eastern crown and finish with 100 wins.

Unlike the prior two ALCS which went five games, this one took the Yankees only four games to wrap up, and the Yankees went on to represent the American League in the 1978 World Series. Notable performers in this series included Reggie Jackson, who hit two home runs, and Chris Chambliss, who had six base hits in 15 at bats. George Brett and Amos Otis were the hitting stars for the Royals.

Summary

New York Yankees vs. Kansas City Royals

New York won the series, 3–1.

GameDateScoreLocationTimeAttendance 
1October 3New York Yankees – 8, Kansas City Royals – 1Royals Stadium2:5741,143[1] 
2October 4New York Yankees – 4, Kansas City Royals – 10Royals Stadium2:4241,158[2] 
3October 6Kansas City Royals – 5, New York Yankees – 6Yankee Stadium2:1355,445[3] 
4October 7Kansas City Royals – 1, New York Yankees – 3Yankee Stadium2:2056,356[4]

Game summaries

Game 1

Tuesday, October 3, 1978 7:30 pm (CT) at Royals Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri
Team123456789RHE
New York0110200307160
Kansas City000001000122
WP: Jim Beattie (1–0)   LP: Dennis Leonard (0–1)   Sv: Ken Clay (1)
Home runs:
NYY: Reggie Jackson (1)
KC: None

Prior to the start of this game, both teams had to deal with bad news. Ron Guidry, he of the incredible 25–3 Cy Young Award-winning season, would be unavailable to start until Game 4, if played, at least. Guidry pitched the AL East division tie-breaker game against the Boston Red Sox and was starting to have arm trouble. Also, second baseman Willie Randolph would miss the entire postseason with a hamstring injury and be replaced by a platoon of Fred Stanley and Brian Doyle. For the Royals, star George Brett was suffering from a bout of hemorrhoids.

Without Guidry, the Yankees went with young Jim Beattie. Beattie pitched five shutout innings and Ken Clay went the rest of the way. The Royals would manage just two hits and one run off the two young pitchers.

Meanwhile, the Yankee bats knocked Dennis Leonard and Steve Mingori around for 13 hits and four runs, Doyle chipping in an RBI single. Reggie Jackson put an exclamation point on the win with a three-run homer in the eighth off Al Hrabosky.

Game 2

Wednesday, October 4, 1978 2:30 pm (CT) at Royals Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri
Team123456789RHE
New York0000002204121
Kansas City14000032X10161
WP: Larry Gura (1–0)   LP: Ed Figueroa (0–1)
Home runs:
NYY: None
KC: Freddie Patek (1)

Royals' starter Larry Gura pitched six shutout innings and won with relief help from Marty Pattin and Al Hrabosky. The Royals' hitting stars were Darrell Porter, Frank White, and Fred Patek with two RBIs each, Patek's on a home run.

Game 3

Friday, October 6, 1978 3:30 pm (ET) at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York
Team123456789RHE
Kansas City1010100205101
New York01020102X6100
WP: Goose Gossage (1–0)   LP: Doug Bird (0–1)
Home runs:
KC: George Brett 3 (3)
NYY: Reggie Jackson (2), Thurman Munson (1)

Yankee starter Catfish Hunter pitched a fine game, going six innings, except for one thing: three consecutive home runs by George Brett. Still, Hunter had a 4–3 lead after six thanks to a homer, RBI single, and sacrifice fly by Reggie Jackson. Jackson also scored a run in the fourth when Fred Patek overthrew Darrell Porter at home plate as Jackson was attempting to score on a hit by Lou Piniella.

The Royals, however, got to Goose Gossage in the top of the eighth. Amos Otis doubled to right and Porter singled him in to tie it. After a Clint Hurdle single, Porter scored the go-ahead run on a groundout by Al Cowens.

But, the Yanks would not be denied. After a one-out single by Roy White, Royals manager Whitey Herzog replaced his starter, left-hander Paul Splittorff, with right-hander Doug Bird to face Thurman Munson. Munson then greeted Bird with a 460-foot, game-winning, two-run blast into the Yankee bullpen in deep left-center field.

Gossage retired the Royals in the ninth and got the win.

The other irony of this game, besides Brett's three homers in a losing effort, was that Reggie Jackson was so productive against Paul Splittorff after former manager Billy Martin's claims that Jackson couldn't hit Splittorff during the 1977 American League Championship Series the year prior.

Brett was the second player to hit three home runs in a League Championship Series game. Bob Robertson was the first, doing so in Game 2 of the 1971 NLCS.

Game 4

Saturday, October 7, 1978 8:30 pm (ET) at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York
Team123456789RHE
Kansas City100000000170
New York01001000X240
WP: Ron Guidry (1–0)   LP: Dennis Leonard (0–2)   Sv: Goose Gossage (1)
Home runs:
KC: None
NYY: Graig Nettles (1), Roy White (1)

Yankee manager Bob Lemon decided to use the sore-armed Ron Guidry to close out the series at Yankee Stadium. Guidry turned in an effective performance, going eight innings and giving up one run on seven hits and striking out seven.

It didn't start out that way, though. George Brett led the game off with a triple off Guidry and Hal McRae immediately followed by driving in Brett with a single. But, the Royals would come up zeros the rest of the way. Meanwhile, Graig Nettles tied it with a homer in the second inning, and Roy White hit the deciding homer in the fifth off Dennis Leonard.

Guidry left in the ninth after giving up a leadoff double to Amos Otis and Goose Gossage set down the next three Royal batters to close out the series and win their third straight AL Pennant.

Composite box

1978 ALCS (3–1): New York Yankees over Kansas City Royals

Team123456789RHE
New York Yankees03122127019421
Kansas City Royals34101134017354
Total attendance: 194,102   Average attendance: 48,526

See also

References

  1. "1978 ALCS Game 1 – New York Yankees vs. Kansas City Royals". Retrosheet. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  2. "1978 ALCS Game 2 – New York Yankees vs. Kansas City Royals". Retrosheet. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  3. "1978 ALCS Game 3 – Kansas City Royals vs. New York Yankees". Retrosheet. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  4. "1978 ALCS Game 4 – Kansas City Royals vs. New York Yankees". Retrosheet. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.