A’S RUN WILD IN WIN OVER ROYALS
Late Rally Overcomes 8th Inning Deficit
KANSAS CITY, July 4 (AP) – The Oakland Athletics stole eight bases and
scored seven times in the final two innings to defeat the Kansas City Royals,
9-3, before a sellout holiday crowd at Royals Stadium. The late rally overcame a 3-2 lead held by Kansas
City entering the eighth inning.
Six different A’s stole bases in the game, with Bert Campanaris and Don Baylor
pilfering a pair of bags apiece. The eight steals is the most by one team
in a single game this year. Oakland leads the major leagues in stolen
bases by a wide margin and is the only club to steal more than four bases in one
game, something they’ve done five times thus far this season.
The A’s drew first blood in the opening frame when Campanaris singled with one
out, stole second base after Baylor popped to short, and scored on Joe Rudi’s
two-out double.
Oakland added a run in the third when Campanaris was hit with a pitch, stole his
second base of the game, and scored when Baylor singled to left.
The Royals—who stole two bases of their own—halved the deficit in the bottom
of the third. Bob Stinson led off by drawing a walk from Oakland starter
Mike Norris and shocked everyone by stealing his first base of the season.
Fred Patek then drew a free pass of his own and Frank White rolled into a
fielder’s choice, leaving runners on the corners with one out. Jim
Wohlford then grounded into a force at second, driving home Stinson to make the
score 2-1.
Kansas City took the lead in the fourth. George Brett led off with a base
hit and Campanaris booted John Mayberry’s potential double play ball, putting
runners at first and second. Hal McRae flied out but a Norris wild pitch
moved runners to second and third. Al Cowens then reached on an infield
single, scoring Brett to tie the game and moving Mayberry to third.
Stinson’s sacrifice fly brought home Mayberry with the go-ahead run.
The score remained 3-2 until the top of the eighth when Rudi ripped his second
two-bagger of the game to open the inning. Mark Littell replaced Royals
starter Al Fitzmorris but immediately ran into trouble by walking Sal
Bando. Gene Tenace grounded out to second but the runners advanced to
second on third. With the infield drawn in Billy Williams grounded to
Frank White at short but his throw to the plate was too late to get Rudi, who
was running on contact. The game was now tied 3-3. Larry Lintz came
on to run for Williams and promptly stole second base to give Oakland runners at
second and third again and Phil Garner lifted a sacrifice fly to left, scoring
Bando with the lead run. Larry Haney then put the A’s up 5-3 when he
drove home Lintz with a single to left.
Oakland broke the game open with a four-run ninth with pinch hitter Ken
McMullen’s bases loaded triple the big blow.
Rollie Fingers was credited with the victory with 2 2/3 innings of shutout work
in relief of Norris. Jim Todd mopped up with a scoreless frame. The
victory pulls the A’s within ½ game of the Royals in the AL West.
7/4/1976, Oak76-KC 76, Royals Stadium 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1976 Athletics 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 4 9 10 2 8 1 1976 Royals 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 3 8 1 Athletics AB R H BI AVG Royals AB R H BI AVG North cf 5 0 0 0 .269 Wohlford lf 4 0 1 1 .285 Campaneris ss 4 2 1 0 .255 Otis cf 5 0 0 0 .276 Baylor rf 3 1 1 1 .261 Brett,G 3b 4 1 2 0 .345 Rudi lf 4 2 2 1 .260 Mayberry 1b 4 1 2 0 .247 Bando 3b 3 1 1 0 .245 McRae dh 4 0 1 0 .389 Tenace 1b 5 1 1 1 .280 Cowens rf 4 0 2 1 .294 Williams,B dh 4 0 1 1 .194 Stinson c 2 1 0 1 .250 Lintz pr 0 1 0 0 .000 Patek ss 1 0 0 0 .242 McMullen ph 1 1 1 2 .247 Rojas 2b 1 0 0 0 .209 Garner 2b 4 0 1 1 .257 White,F 2b 3 0 0 0 .240 Haney c 4 0 1 1 .222 Solaita ph 1 0 0 0 .215 Alexander,M pr 0 0 0 0 .150 33 3 8 3 Newman c 0 0 0 0 .000 37 9 10 8 Athletics INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Norris 5.1 5 3 1 2 1 91 51 4.18 Fingers W 5-1 2.2 2 0 0 0 2 26 17 1.54 Todd 1.0 1 0 0 2 0 23 12 1.53 9.0 8 3 1 4 3 140 80 Royals INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Fitzmorris 7.0 8 3 3 1 1 93 66 3.42 Littell BS 4, L 5-1 1.2 2 6 5 4 1 44 22 2.92 Hall 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 6 3 2.37 9.0 10 9 8 5 2 143 91 Oak: Lintz ran for Williams,B in the 8th Alexander,M ran for Haney in the 8th Newman inserted at c in the 8th McMullen batted for Lintz in the 9th KC : Rojas inserted at 2b in the 5th White,F moved to ss in the 5th Solaita batted for White,F in the 9th E-Campaneris, Haney, Stinson 2, White,F. 2B-Rudi 2(13). 3B-McMullen(2), Cowens(5). RBI-Baylor(56), Rudi(28), Tenace(17), Williams,B(28), Garner(34), Haney(23), McMullen 2(10), Wohlford(12), Cowens(49), Stinson(15). SB-Campaneris 2(30), Baylor 2(28), Bando(9), Garner(18), Lintz(14), Alexander,M(8), Cowens(10), Stinson(1). CS-Wohlford. K-North, Haney, Wohlford, Stinson, Patek. BB-Baylor 2, Rudi, Bando 2, Wohlford, Stinson, Patek, Rojas. SF-Garner, Stinson. HBP-Campaneris. PB-Stinson. HB-Fitzmorris. WP-Norris. GWRBI: Garner Freddie Patek was ejected from this game Temperature: 85, Sky: partly cloudy, Wind: in from left at 1 MPH. Attendance: 40,539 Game Time: 2:45