The1978American League Championship Series was a best-of-five playoff inMajor League Baseball's1978 postseason pitting theNew York Yankees against theKansas City Royals for the American League pennant and the right to represent the American League in the1978 World Series. The Yankees defeated the Royals for the third straight year to win the pennant.

The Royals won 92 games that year and won the Western Division title by five games over theTexas Rangers. The Yankees overcame a midseason deficit of 14 games and went on to win aone-game playoff against theBoston 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 the1978 World Series. Notable performers in this series includedReggie Jackson, who hit twohome runs, andChris Chambliss, who had six base hits in 15 at bats.George Brett andAmos Otis were the hitting stars for the Royals.

New York won the series, 3–1.

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

Without Guidry, the Yankees went with youngJim Beattie. Beattie pitched five shutout innings andKen 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 knockedDennis Leonard andSteve 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 offAl Hrabosky.

Royals' starterLarry Gura pitched six shutout innings and won with relief help fromMarty Pattin andAl Hrabosky. The Royals' hitting stars wereDarrell Porter,Frank White, andFred Patek with two RBIs each, Patek's on a home run.

Yankee starterCatfish Hunter pitched a fine game, going six innings, except for one thing: three consecutive home runs byGeorge Brett. Still, Hunter had a 4–3 lead after six thanks to a homer, RBI single, andsacrifice fly byReggie Jackson. Jackson also scored a run in the fourth whenFred Patek overthrewDarrell Porter at home plate as Jackson was attempting to score on a hit byLou Piniella. The Yankees tried to extend the lead in the fourth, but Piniella was thrown out at the plate on a hit byGraig Nettles.

The Royals missed an opportunity in the top of the sixth whenPete LaCock led the inning off with a triple, but Hunter retired the next three batters without the run scoring. They got toGoose Gossage in the top of the eighth, however.Amos Otis doubled to right and Porter singled him in to tie it. After aClint Hurdle single, Porter scored the go-ahead run on a groundout byAl Cowens.

But, the Yanks would not be denied. After a one-out single byRoy White, Royals managerWhitey Herzog replaced his starter, left-handerPaul Splittorff, with right-handerDoug Bird to faceThurman 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 thatReggie Jackson was so productive againstPaul Splittorff after former managerBilly Martin's claims that Jackson couldn't hit Splittorff during the1977 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 inGame 2 of the 1971 NLCS.

Yankee managerBob Lemon decided to use the sore-armedRon Guidry to close out the series atYankee 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 andHal 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, andRoy White hit the deciding homer in the fifth offDennis Leonard.

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

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

• 1978 in baseball

• Series statistics at Baseball Reference

• American League Championship Series
• New York Yankees postseason
• Kansas City Royals postseason
• 1978 Major League Baseball season
• 1978 in sports in Missouri
• 1970s in Kansas City, Missouri
• 1978 in sports in New York City
• October 1978 sports events in the United States
• 1970s in the Bronx

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