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| Spot starter Marty "Duck" Pattin came up big for the Kansas City Royals on Aug. 7, 1977, with a complete-game six-hitter in a 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox. The Royals drew within 1 1/2 games of the American League West-leading White Sox and would go on to win the division by eight games. |
By Phil Ellenbecker
It would be hard to pick out any one game in the Kansas City Royals' winningest season as being pivotal -- a turning point in a year in which they won the American League West by eight games over Texas with a major-league best record of 102-60.
But it took them a while to take over, and the Chicago White Sox did give them a lot of trouble over the summer of 1977, so if I had to pick out one game, I would go with the Sunday afternoon of Aug. 7 at Royals Stadium, when Kansas City completed a sweep of the White Sox with a dramatic 3-2 victory.
Pinch hitter John Wathan singled in the winning run with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning before a crowd of 40,237, second-largest to see the Royals in K.C. that season.
It was the Royals' fifth straight win as they pulled from 5 1/2 games behind the ChiSox to 1 1/2 back in that span. By Aug. 20, as the Royals were in the middle of a 10-game win streak, they'd taken over first place for good.
Although the Royals had their share of hitting in these days, this game illustrated how solid their pitching was -- they led the league in ERA this year at 3.52 -- and what a handy guy Martin Pattin was to have around.
Spot starter Pattin, a compact 5-foot-11, 180-pound right-hander, threw a complete-game six-hitter as he improved to 4-2.
Pattin put on a masterful display of pitching to contact, retiring 12 White Sox on ground balls, 11 on fly outs, two on pops and one on a live drive as he needed only one strikeout while walking two. He retired the Sox in order in five innings, and with a double play had six three-batter innings.
Twice Patton, known as "Duck" for his Donald Duck impersonations and "Bulldog" for his tenacity, retired seven straight batters. He was working on his second such string when Oscar Gamble homered deep to right field leading off the ninth inning, tying the score at 2. It was Gamble's 20th homer of the season.
Ken Kravec was pitching a pretty solid game of his own for the White Sox, but when he walked Amos Otis leading off the bottom of the ninth, Chicago manager Bob Lemon summoned Lerrin LaGrow. Al Cowens moved Otis to second with a sacrifice bunt that went first-to-pitcher.
John Mayberry was then intentionally walked, bringing up Joe Zdeb. Royals manager Whitey Herzog called on Joe Lahoud to pinch hit, and Lemon countered by calling on left-hander Randy Wiles.
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| John "Duke" Wathan's single in the ninth inning drove in Amos Otis and made a winner out of Marty Pattin and the Kansas City Royals as they prevailed 3-2 over the Chicago White Sox on Aug. 7, 1977. |
So Herzog sent up right-handed hitter Wathan, who hit .328 in 119 at-bats in 1977 in his first full year in the major leagues. Known as "Duke" for his John Wayne impersonations, the future Royals manager singled to left to score Otis and end it.
Krakow fell to 7-3 as he allowed five hits and three runs, all earned, while walking two and striking out four.
Cowens, who finished second behind Rod Carew in AL MVP voting this year, led the Royals offense, going 2-for-3 with two doubles and scoring both K.C. runs before the ninth.
Mayberry singled in Cowens with two out in the fourth to give the Royals a 1-0 lead.
The White Sox tied it on a single by Ralph Garr and double by Jorge Orta leading off the sixth.
Cowens started K.C.'s seventh with a double and scored on Zdeb's single, making it 2-1 Royals.
Pattin pitched the first of his four complete games on the season and was in the middle of an eight-game winning streak from June 16 to Sept. 9, including nine innings of shutout relief July 1 against Cleveland. He finished 10-3 with a 3.58 ERA. He was fifth on the team in wins and starts with 10 each as Herzog filled in around his top four of Dennis Leonard, Jim Colborn, Paul Splittorff and Andy Hassler. Pattin led the team in winning percentage with a career-best .769.
Krukow had a final record of 11-8 with a 4.10 ERA, best among the White Sox starters.
The White Sox led the AL West or were tied for first from June 19 through Aug. 19, topped by a 5 1/2-game margin, which they enjoyed after splitting a doubleheader with the Royals on July 31 before a season-high crowd of 50,412 at Chicago's Comiskey Park. But one week later it had shrunk to one-half game over Minnesota and 1 1/2 over K.C. By Aug. 20 the Royals had moved in front in a tight race, Chicago and Texas one-half game back and Minnesota one behind. The White Sox eventually faded to third place with a final record of 90-72, 12 games behind the Royals and four behind Texas.
The 1977 White Sox became known as the "Southside Hit Men" for their homer-hitting propensities, thrilling obnoxious Comiskey crowds who would greet home-team rallies with chants of "Na, Na, Hey, Hey…Goodbye," resurrecting a 1969 No. 1 hit song from a fictitious group known as Steam.
The ChiSox run proved to be fiction. They finished second in the major leagues in homers with 192 behind Boston's 213, led by Gamble with 31 and Richie Zisk with 30. They were third in the AL in runs scored. But their pitching couldn't keep up, as their 4.28 overall ERA was eighth-best in the league.
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| Al Cowens' 1977 performance earned him second place in American League MVP voting and the cover of this issue of The Sporting News. He went 2-for-3 with two doubles and two runs scored in the Kansas City Royals' 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Aug. 7, 1977. |
Meanwhile, the Royals had the fifth-highest scoring team in the AL, built around line-drive hitting, and combined with their league-leading pitching they became a runaway freight train in August and September with a 45-16 record in those two months, including 16 straight wins from Aug. 3 to Sept. 15.
The Royals led the majors in both doubles and triples, with Hal McRae's 54 two-baggers the most in the major leagues during a 43-year span -- going back to Stan Musial's 53 in 1953 and up to John Olerud's 54 in 1993.
K.C. could pulverize teams by pounding the gaps, going 31-13 in games decided by more than five runs for a .636 percentage, comparable to its overall .630 clip.
But as their Aug. 7 victory illustrates, the Royals were even better at pulling out the tight ones -- 31-13 for a .705 percentage.
Combining all facets, many Royals fans say the '77 team was their finest ever. They just didn't have the postseason success to show for it. They blew a 2-1 lead in the AL Championship Series and lost 3-2 to the dreaded New York Yankees, the second of three straight years they lost to the Bronx Bombers in the ALCS. It took them until 1980 to finally beat the Yankees and get to the World Series, and until '85 to finally win a Series.
As for Pattin, who'd been the Opening Day starter and winner for the expansion Seattle Pilots in 1969, he continued pitching for the Royals through that 1980 World Series appearance. For his 13-year major league career he had a 114-109 record, led by 17 wins with Boston in 1972, with a 3.62 ERA topped by 2.49 with K.C. in '76. He had 224 starts, 64 complete games, 119 games finished and 25 saves.
And he was capable of a stellar outing any time he took the mound, such as on Aug. 7, 1977.
Sources:
Play-by-play: https://www.
Marty Pattin biography: https://sabr.org/
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