1977 American League Championship Series
Team (Wins) Managers Season New York Yankees (3) Billy Martin 100–62, .617, GA: 2½ Kansas City Royals (2) Whitey Herzog 102–60, .630, GA: 8
Dates	October 5–9
Umpires	Jerry Neudecker Russ Goetz Jim McKean Marty Springstead Nick Bremigan Bill Deegan
Broadcast
Television	NBC WPIX (NYY) KBMA-TV (KC)
TV announcers	NBC:Jim Simpson andMaury Wills (Game 1) Dick Enberg andDon Drysdale (Game 2) Joe Garagiola andTony Kubek (in Kansas City) WPIX:Phil Rizzuto,Frank Messer andBill White KBMA-TV:Denny Matthews andFred White
Radio	CBS WMCA (NYY) WIBW (KC)
Radio announcers	CBS:Ernie Harwell andNed Martin WMCA:Phil Rizzuto,Frank Messer andBill White WIBW:Denny Matthews andFred White
← 1976 ALCS 1978 →

The1977American League Championship Series was a five-game series inMajor League Baseball's1977 postseason played between October 5 and 9, 1977, between theEastern division championNew York Yankees and theWestern division championKansas City Royals.

The games were played atYankee Stadium (Games 1–2), andRoyals Stadium (3–5). The Yankees took the series 3–2, and defeated theLos Angeles Dodgers in the1977 World Series to take the title. Kansas City was givenhome-field advantage as it rotated back to the Western division; the Royals held a 102–60 record to the Yankees' 100–62 record.

This was the second straight year in which the Royals and the Yankees squared off in the ALCS. The year before in the1976 ALCS, the Yankees took the series in five games on aChris Chamblisshome run in the ninth inning of Game 5.

This series, they would again win it in their lastat bat.

Each game of the series was dominated by, mostly, hitting. However, the pitchers of each team held their own and it made for some exciting games.

The first game's matchup wasPaul Splittorff (16–6) versusDon Gullett (14–4). Although the matchup seemed to not exactly be the classic Game 1 pitcher's duel, these twopitchers were the best of their profession for that season, although Gullett's was plagued with someshoulder injuries.

New York won the series, 3–2.

The visiting Royals jumped on the sore-shoulderedDon Gullett early and never looked back.Hal McRae hit a two-run home run in the first andFreddie Patek had a two-run double in the second.John Mayberry hit a two-run home run offDick Tidrow in the third.Thurman Munson provided the Yankee runs in the third with a two-run home run of his own, but that was the only blemish on a pitching gem byPaul Splittorff. Splittorff went eight strong innings andDoug Bird closed it in the ninth.Al Cowens added a home run for the Royals in the eighth off Tidrow.

The Royals had hopes of putting the Yankees down 2–0 going back to KC, and for a while that appeared possible. Beating new-found Yankees' aceRon Guidry would be a tough task. The Royals scraped a run in the third whenFreddie Patek drove inDarrell Porter with asacrifice fly.

Royals' starterAndy Hassler had a shutout going for four innings, butCliff Johnson broke the drought with a home run in the fifth. The Yankees took a 2–1 lead in the same inning whenWillie Randolph singled, Hassler balked him to second, andBucky Dent drove him home with a single.

Hard base-running helped the Royals tie it in the sixth inning. Patek led off with a double andHal McRae walked. The next batter,George Brett, grounded toGraig Nettles, who threw to Randolph at second to force McRae. McRae, however, barreled into Randolph with a body-block, breaking up thedouble play attempt and enabling Patek to score the tying run.

McRae's aggressive ploy seemed to ignite the Yankees in their half of the sixth.Thurman Munson singled with one out off Hassler, thenLou Piniella singled with two outs offMark Littell. Johnson doubled in a run and after an intentional walk, an error by Brett on a Randolph grounder allowed two more runs to score to make it 5–2. Randolph also had an RBI single in the eighth off Little.

Meanwhile, Guidry stymied the Royals, pitching a complete game and allowing the Royals only three hits and the two runs.

AtKauffman Stadium,Dennis Leonard pitched a four-hit complete game to give the Royals a 2–1 series lead. After a one-out walk and single,Freddie Patek's RBI single offMike Torrez in the second put the Royals up 1–0. Next inning,Al Cowens' groundout with runners on second and third and no outs made it 2–0 Royals. The Yankees got on the board in the fifth whenGraig Nettles singled with two outs and scored onLou Pinella's double, but the Royals got that run back in the bottom of the inning whenHal McRae hit a leadoff double, moved to third on a groundout, and scored on Cowens' groundout. Next inning, Torrez allowed a leadoff walk and single, then got two outs before being relieved bySparky Lyle, who allowed a two-run double toAmos Otis. Next inning,George Brett hit a leadoff single and scored onJohn Mayberry's RBI double. The Yankees got a run in the ninth whenRoy White doubled with one out and scored on first baseman Mayberry's error onReggie Jackson's ground ball beforeChris Chambliss grounded out to end the game.

This game was a barn-burner early on, with the Yankees precariously clinging to the upper hand. New York jumped out to an early 4–0 lead after2+1⁄2 innings on RBIs byThurman Munson,Bucky Dent,Mickey Rivers, andLou Piniella. The Royals clawed back in the home half of the third whenFreddie Patek, having a fine series for himself, tripled and scored on a short fly ball hit byFrank White, barely beatingReggie Jackson's throw to the plate.George Brett tripled in a run in the same inning.

AfterGraig Nettles singled in a run in the fourth to make it 5–2, the Royals got two more in their half. With two outs, Patek doubled in a run, chasing Yankee starterEd Figueroa. White doubled in Patek andHal McRae drew a walk off relieverDick Tidrow. At this point, Yankee managerBilly Martin made a gutsy move, bringing in his ace closer and AL Cy Young Award winner,Sparky Lyle. Lyle was rarely used this early in a game, but Martin figured he was fresh, having only pitched one inning the whole series and, in Martin's own words, "I wanted my best pitcher out there."

But the move paid off as Lyle got George Brett to fly out to Lou Piniella in left to end the 4th inning, then shut the Royals down by allowing only two hits and no runners past second base over the last 5 innings. The Yankees added insurance in the ninth on a Munson sacrifice fly.

In order for the Yankees to advance to their second straight World Series, they would have to win again at the Royals' home park. To do that, they would have to beat their Game 1 nemesis,Paul Splittorff. Given that, Yankee managerBilly Martin decided to sit outReggie Jackson on the grounds that he was 1-for-15 so far in the series and, in his own words, "can't hit Splittorff."Paul Blair started in right field and batted eighth.

The Royals struck for a pair in the first whenHal McRae singled andGeorge Brett tripled him in. Brett slid hard intoGraig Nettles at third and Nettles responded by kicking Brett, which started a bench-clearing brawl. Yankees' starting pitcherRon Guidry rushed in to defend Nettles. After order was restored,Al Cowens drove in Brett with a groundout.

The Yankees crept back in the third on aThurman Munson RBI single, but the Royals matched that in the bottom half on a double by McRae and RBI single by Cowens with one out. Martin then pulled Guidry, who had gotten hurt in the first-inning brawl.^{[citation needed]}Mike Torrez came in and pitched shutout ball over the next5+1⁄3 innings.

The Yankees began to claw back in the eighth. Right-handerDoug Bird relieved Splittorff afterWillie Randolph led off the inning with a single. With one out, Piniella singled Randolph to third. With the "unhittable" Splittorff out of the game, Martin decided to send Jackson to the plate to hit forCliff Johnson. Jackson put aside all frustrations over not starting the game and came through with a pinch-hit RBI single to cut the Royal lead to 3–2.

The Royals mounted a threat in their half of the eighth. Torrez walked bothAmos Otis andPete LaCock with two outs, but relief aceSparky Lyle came in and struck outCookie Rojas, the Royals' DH playing in what would be his last major-league game.

With apparently very little confidence in regular closerMark Littell, who struggled in 1977, Royals managerWhitey Herzog sent Game 3 stopperDennis Leonard out to preserve the lead in the ninth. Leonard, unaccustomed to short relief, yielded a bloop single toPaul Blair and walkedRoy White (pinch hitting forBucky Dent) with no outs. Herzog, going with percentages, replaced Leonard with another normal starter, left-handerLarry Gura. The strategy backfired as Gura gave up a game-tying RBI single toMickey Rivers, with White reaching third. Herzog then brought in Littell, who retiredWillie Randolph on a deep drive to center as White tagged and scored the go-ahead run. Munson was retired, but Piniella hit a grounder to third that Brett threw away at first, scoring Rivers with the final run.

Lyle then retired the Royals in the ninth, the final outs coming whenFreddie Patek hit into a double play. As the Yankees celebrated, Patek sat in the dugout, dejected, for several minutes. (Coincidentally, it was Patek's 33rd birthday that day.)Tony Kubek, commentating forNBC, summed up: "The Yankees know how to win."

1977 ALCS(3–2):New York Yankees overKansas City Royals

• Baseball-Reference.com's 1977 ALCS page

• American League Championship Series
• 1977 Major League Baseball season
• New York Yankees postseason
• Kansas City Royals postseason
• 1977 in sports in Missouri
• 1970s in Kansas City, Missouri
• 1977 in sports in New York City
• October 1977 sports events in the United States
• 1970s in the Bronx

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