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Game 102, Monday August 1, 1977 ~

At Minnesota

Twins 11, Royals 3

WP: Dave Goltz (3-1, 3.69); LP: Jim Colborn (13-5, 3.62)

We just can’t catch a break right now. Twins ace Dave Goltz returned from injury and made his first start in three months. He was sharp. Jim Colborn was not.

Colborn extended our string of bad pitching. I had to keep him on the mound because our entire staff was still beaten down from playing four games in three days at Chicago. But after six innings, Colborn’s endurance was gone — and so was mine.

Colborn allowed 7 runs (5 earned) on 9 hits with 3 walks, 2 hit batsmen, 2 wild pitches and a balk. He covered the whole bingo card of bad pitching.

Goltz scattered 10 KC hits over 8 innings. He walked 2 and struck out 3, helping the Twins snap their 6-game skid.

Frank White hit HR No. 6 for KC. Larry Hisle hit his 23rd for Minnesota.

***

Game 103, Tuesday August 2, 1977 ~

At Minnesota

Royals 4, Twins 2

WP: Dennis Leonard (10-4, 2.76); LP: Roger Erickson (3-7, 6.19); Sv: Rich Gale (1, 3.92)

Pete LaCock hit a pinch-hit, bases-clearing double in the top of the seventh inning to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 Royals lead. This time we hung on.

Dennis Leonard struck out 6 over 7 innings.

Minnesota’s Rod Carew went 3-for-4, raising his season average to .360.

Now we head back home to host Toronto for a pair. This is an excellent chance to get things going back in the right direction.

***

Game 104, Wednesday August 3, 1977 ~

At Kansas City

Blue Jays 2, Royals 1

WP: Dave Lemanczyk (6-13, 5.58); LP: Rich Gale (1-3, 3.74); Sv: Pete Vuckovich (7, 6.46)

Somehow, the Royals and Blue Jays managed to shut each other out for eight innings. Then a Rico Carty error at first base opened the door for the Jays to score a pair of unearned runs in the top of the ninth.

The Royals got one run back on a one-out RBI triple by Al Cowens, but Toronto brought in Pete Vuckovich to put out the fire, and he did. (This is the only time in your life you’ll ever read about Pete Vuckovich coming in to put out a fire, btw)

Steve Renko started for KC. He allowed 0 runs over 6 innings, with 2 strikeouts and 1 walk.

***

Game 105, Thursday August 4, 1977 ~

At Kansas City

Royals 5, Blue Jays 3

WP: Steve Mingori (4-3, 5.27); LP: Jesse Jefferson (6-11, 6.14); Sv: Mark Littell (11, 6.31)

Frank White singled, stole second base, went to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored the tie-breaking run on a Tom Poquette sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh.

George Brett added the insurance, his 17th home run of the season, in the bottom of the eighth to make it 5-3.

Blue Jays back-up catcher Milt May, recently acquired from Detroit and batting just .133 on the season, hit a 2-run double off LHP Paul Splittorff in the top of the first inning. But KC’s backup catcher Clint Hurdle crushed a 3-run homer in the bottom of the first.

Toronto tied it 3-3 on Doug Ault’s RBI double in the top of the third.

Splittorff lasted just five innings and got no decision. Steve Mingori and Mark Littell combined on four innings of shutout, 2-hit ball to notch the win and save, respectively.

***

Game 106, Friday August 5, 1977 ~

At Kansas City

Royals 3, White Sox 2 (10 innings)

WP: Larry Gura (2-4, 4.71); LP: Dave Giusti (0-2, 2.25)

George Brett led off the bottom of the 10th inning with his 18th round-tripper of the season to walk this one off for the Royals.

Chicago’s Francisco Barrios and KC’s Marty Pattin waged an epic pitcher’s duel in this one. Barrios allowed 2 runs (1 earned) on 10 hits over eight innings. Pattin allowed just 2 runs on 6 hits, with 0 strikeouts and 4 walks over 9.1 innings of work. Tough for him to not get a decision.

Brett and Al Cowens each went 3-for-4 to raise their season averages to .329 and .345, respectively.

***

Game 107, Saturday August 6, 1977 ~

At Kansas City

Royals 12, White Sox 6

WP: Jim Colborn (14-5, 3.66); LP: Rudy May (1-1*, 5.59)

It didn’t look good in the top of the second when the White Sox came up with a couple of triples and took a 3-1 lead. But RHP Jim Colborn settled down from there, and the Royals brought enough offense to get over some mediocre pitching.

George Brett and Al Cowens had 3 hits apiece for the second game in a row, Kiko Garcia belted TWO homers (wut??) and KC smacked out 15 hits in total.

Colborn threw 134 pitches over eight innings, so Rich Gale pitched the ninth. It was a good thing we had a big lead. Gale allowed 2 runs on 3 walks, 1 hit and a balk. Jeeesh.

We need to bring it on Sunday afternoon. The Sox will have LHP Ken Kravec (12-3) on the hill.

*Rudy May is 1-1 with the White Sox. He was 8-9 with a 4.89 ERA with Baltimore before being traded to the Sox.

***

Game 108, Sunday August 7, 1977 ~

At Kansas City

Royals 12, White Sox 3

WP: Dennis Leonard (11-4, 2.78); LP: Ken Kravec (12-4, 4.26)

Ken Kravec didn’t have our number this time. In fact, he didn’t anything.

The Royals’ John Mayberry hit a two-out, 3-run, oppo-field home run (his 19th) in the bottom of the first to make it 3-0. Then we jumped all over Kravec and the Sox for 7 more runs in the second inning to go up 10-0. We cruised to our fourth straight win from there.

Dennis Leonard made up for his terrible previous outing against the Sox. He went the distance, allowed just 5 hits, walked 4 and struck out 6.

Catcher Darrell Porter hit his 17th and 18th homers of the year in this game. He’s now hitting .285 with 18 homers and 49 RBI. Where might his stats be if he hadn’t missed a month of the season? Tom Poquette went 3-for-3 with 3 RBIs and 2 runs scored. He’s now batting .298 with 48 RBI.

What makes this win even more notable is we had to rest the middle of our lineup: George Brett, Amos Otis and Al Cowens. All three were tired and we have a doubleheader with the California Angels on Monday. We are currently tied with the Angels for second place, 64-44 and 8.5 games behind behind the Rangers — who have lost two straight.

Richie Zisk hit his 18th homer of the season and Eric Soderholm crushed his 20th for Chicago.

***