August 10, 1979: Dan Ford hits for the cycle, ties Angels’ record for consecutive hits

The California Angels were in first place in the American League West Division, four games ahead of the Minnesota Twins, as play began on August 10, 1979. For the past four seasons, the Angels had been steadily climbing the division standings, finishing second in 1978, five games behind the Kansas City Royals’ third straight AL West champions. Now, with 37-year-old manager Jim Fregosi – a six-time All-Star shortstop for the Angels during his playing career – in his first full season at the helm, California had a chance for the first title in the franchise’s 19-season history.

The Angels hosted the Seattle Mariners for the first of a three-game series, the last time the two teams would play each other in 1979. The Mariners, in their third season after joining the league as an expansion franchise,1 were 17 games behind the Angels and mired in sixth or seventh place in the seven-club division since mid-April.

It was an exciting Friday night for the 28,969 fans at Anaheim Stadium. A back-and-forth contest spilled into extra innings, and it took 14 frames before the game was decided. The Angels’ Dan Ford hit for the cycle and tied a franchise record for consecutive hits, while Seattle’s Bruce Bochte haunted his former team in an 8-6 Mariners victory, driving in three runs, including the go-ahead tally in the top of the 14th.

Ford, a 27-year-old Los Angeles native and Fremont High School graduate, was in his first year with the Angels, having been traded to the club after four seasons with the Minnesota Twins.2 He told reporters, “This is like a dream come true. I’m home. It’s like being in high school again.”3

Ford had singled in his last at-bat of the Angels’ August 7 loss to the Oakland A’s and went 4-for-4, all singles, in California’s 8-1 win in Oakland a day later.

Angels’ right-hander Don Aase got the start in the series opener against the Mariners. In his previous start, on August 5, the 24-year-old had lasted only 2⅓ innings against the Twins, and in the start before that (August 1), the Mariners had knocked him off the mound after just one out, ambushing Aase for four hits and three runs. The Angels had a complete game by Dave Frost on August 8, followed by an offday. The bullpen was somewhat rested coming into the Seattle series, but Fregosi was hopeful for a better outing from his starter. The Los Angeles Times reported that “the pitching staff is being reassembled for a stretch drive.”4

On the other side of the diamond, Seattle manager Darrell Johnson gave the starting nod to righty Mike Parrott. Parrott, also 24 years old, had transitioned from the bullpen into a starter in mid-May, and he was pitching to win his 10th game of the season. He had won three of his last four decisions, including a shutout victory over California on July 30.

Aase started off well, pitching three scoreless innings. He struck out the first two batters he faced and fanned seven Mariners in the first five innings.

Meanwhile, the Angels got after Parrott in the first frame. Rick Miller led off with a base on balls. Carney Lansford lined the first pitch he saw over the left-field fence for his 13th homer of the season and a 2-0 lead.

That brought up Ford, who had five straight hits over his last two games. He “hit a hopper off the tip of third baseman Dan Meyer’s glove,” according to the Los Angeles Times,5 and legged out a double for his sixth straight hit. Don Baylor’s groundout moved Ford to third. Parrott fanned Rod Carew but hit Brian Downing. Fregosi put on the hit-and-run, and Joe Rudi drove Ford home with a single through the hole vacated by Mariners second baseman Julio Cruz.

Ford singled in his next at-bat, leading off the third inning, for consecutive safety number seven. He advanced on two groundouts but was stranded at third.

Aase took the 3-0 lead into the fourth, but Willie Horton singled and advanced to second on a passed ball.6 The Mariners also had a pair of groundouts, which sent Horton to third and then home with Seattle’s first run.

An inning later, the Mariners tied it up. With two outs, Ruppert Jones singled to center. That brought up Bochte, who admitted to wearing an Angels T-shirt under his Mariners uniform, as a “reminder of his ‘pleasant’ days in the California organization.”7

The left-handed-swinging Bochte grew up in Southern California and made his major-league debut with the Angels in 1974. He had been traded to the Cleveland Indians in May 1977, in a deal aimed at bolstering California’s bullpen with lefty Dave LaRoche.8 Bochte was granted free agency at the end of that season and signed with Seattle.

Bochte’s performance against the team that took him in the second round of the 1972 amateur draft was anything but pleasant for California. He batted .281 against the Angels while in Cleveland and hit .346 with a .985 OPS against California in his first year with Seattle. Now, in 1979, in six games prior to this three-game series, Bochte was batting 11-for-25 (.440) against the Angels.9 The All-Star first baseman brought a .326 overall batting average into the series, and he added three more hits in this first game. The first came in the fifth, when Bochte lined an Aase offering into the right-field seats for his 13th home run. That tied the game.

In the bottom of the fifth, Ford launched his 16th home run well past the right-field fence. That gave the Angels the lead, and it also gave him eight consecutive base hits, tying the franchise record set by Fregosi himself in 1966.10

Again, Aase couldn’t hold the lead. Tom Paciorek doubled to start the top of the sixth. Two outs later, Larry Milbourne pinch-hit for Mario Mendoza and hit an RBI single into left field. With the score knotted at 4-4, Aase was chased from the hill.

Over the next four innings, California’s Chris Knapp and Mark Clear combined to keep the Mariners off the basepaths, while Seattle’s Byron McLaughlin, who entered in the seventh, allowed a few walks and hits without yielding any runs. McLaughlin fanned Ford in the seventh to snap the hit streak.11

It was still tied when McLaughlin threw a pitch near Carew’s head to start the bottom half of the 10th. Carew took a few steps toward the mound and both benches emptied. According to the Los Angeles Times, “[E]verybody stayed cool and turned around and went back.”12 Carew then lined a single to right as payback. He was caught trying to steal second and the potential rally ended.

Clear had thrown four scoreless innings when he took the mound in the 12th. Milbourne singled with one out and went to second on Cruz’s sacrifice bunt. The move paid off, as Jones singled up the middle, plating Milbourne with the go-ahead run. Bochte singled but was stranded.

McLaughlin, who had put up five straight scoreless frames of his own, attempted to close out the game in the home half of the 12th. Ford launched a triple to deep center, giving him the cycle. The ball “caromed past a startled [center fielder] Jones into no-man’s land,” reported the Seattle Times.13 Right fielder Joe Simpson retrieved the ball, preventing an inside-the-park home run. Ford scored the tying run on Baylor’s sacrifice fly.

In the 13th, LaRoche relieved Clear and Randy Stein relieved McLaughlin. Both teams had baserunners, but neither could get them home. In the top of the 14th, Cruz doubled and went to third on Jones’s third single of the game. Bochte – traded away to bring LaRoche to the Angels – followed with an RBI single, his third hit of the game.

Fregosi brought in right-hander Mike Barlow to face the righty-batting Horton, who bunted both runners into scoring position. An intentional walk to Meyer loaded the bases, and Simpson singled to center, driving in Jones and Bochte for a three-run Seattle lead.

California tried for a late comeback. With two outs, Lansford walked. Ford smashed his fifth hit of the game, an RBI double to right. But Stein retired Baylor on a groundout, and the Mariners prevailed, 8-6. It was Stein’s second win in three decisions.14 LaRoche took the loss.15

Ford became just the second player in Angels franchise history to hit for the cycle, connecting himself again with Fregosi, who accomplished the rare feat twice: on July 28, 1964, against the New York Yankees, and on May 20, 1968, against the Boston Red Sox.16 Ford’s 5-for-7 performance raised his average to .299.17 It was the second of four cycles in the 1979 major-league season, all in the American League.18

Despite the loss, California held a 3½-game lead in the AL West. Ford went on to set career highs with 100 runs, 165 hits, 21 home runs, 101 RBIs, a .290 batting average, and a .797 OPS, helping to lead to Angels to their first-ever division title.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin. The author thanks SABR member Chuck Nan for providing Angels franchise records regarding consecutive hits.

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, MLB.com, Retrosheet.org, and SABR.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CAL/CAL197908100.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1979/B08100CAL1979.htm

Notes

1 The Toronto Blue Jays had also joined the AL in 1977.

2 The Angels traded Danny Goodwin and Ron Jackson for Ford in December 1978.

3 Mike Littwin, “Angels Make the First Move,” Los Angeles Times, December 5, 1978: D1.

4 Mark Heisler, “Mariners Come from Behind to Win in 14th,” Los Angeles Times, August 11, 1979: 44. Both Frank Tanana and Chris Knapp had been on the disabled list. Tanana was due back in Anaheim during the Mariners series, and Knapp was just reinstated from the DL.

5 Heisler.

6 Horton was enjoying an excellent season in 1979 (his 17th in the majors), playing in all 162 of Seattle’s games. He won the AL Comeback Player of the Year Award and even received an MVP vote for the first time since 1973.

7 Associated Press, “Bochte Inflicts Pain on Ex-Teammates,” San Luis Obispo County (California) Telegram-Tribune, August 11, 1979: 6.

8 Bochte was traded with Sid Monge and $250,000 to Cleveland for LaRoche and Dave Schuler.

9 Bochte had played in only six of the two teams’ first 10 meetings. He finished the 1979 season batting .405 against the Angels, with a 1.155 OPS. Bochte had not played against his former teammates since May 31, when he went 3-for-5 with a homer, three runs scored, and five runs batted in. He missed the Seattle-California series from July 30 – August 1, due to a family emergency involving his infant daughter, Sara.

10 As of the 2024 season, the major-league record for the most consecutive at-bats with a hit is 12 straight hits, held by Johnny Kling (Chicago Cubs, 1902), Mike “Pinky” Higgins (Boston Red Sox, 1938), Walt Dropo (Detroit Tigers, 1952), and José Miranda (Minnesota Twins, 2024).

11 McLaughlin also retired Ford on a grounder in the ninth with the potential winning run on second base. As of the beginning of the 2024 season, Bengie Molina held the Angels franchise record with nine hits in consecutive plate appearances, set from August 20-23, 2001.

12 Heisler.

13 J. Michael Kenyon, “M’s Marathon Winners,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 11, 1979: 13.

14 The victory was also the fifth (and last) for Stein in his career. He finished his career after the 1982 season with a 5-6 mark in 65 appearances (63 in relief).

15 LaRoche’s record dropped to 4-10. He finished the season at 7-11. In 1978 he posted 25 saves, but this stat fell to just 10 in 1979. Aase made one more start, taking a loss against the Detroit Tigers on August 14, before being relegated to the Angels’ bullpen. After the August 14 start, Aase made three relief appearances for the Angels. Fregosi gave him another start on August 28, also against the Tigers, but Aase did not make it out of the third inning. He pitched out of the bullpen in September. In 1980 the Angels gave Aase 21 starts in 40 appearances, but after five straight losses in July, he was again sent to the California bullpen. From 1981 to 1990, Aase pitched in nine more seasons (for California, the Baltimore Orioles, the New York Mets, and the Los Angeles Dodgers), strictly as a reliever.

16 As of the beginning of the 2024 season, Angels batters had completed nine cycles. Ed Eagle, “Players Who Have Hit for Cycle,” MLB.com, July 28, 2024, https://www.mlb.com/news/players-who-hit-for-the-cycle-c265552018. Fregosi’s second cycle was in reverse natural order (HR-3B-2B-1B).

17 Three other players in Angels franchise history have nine hits in two games: Lee Thomas (1961), Tim Salmon (1994), and Garret Anderson (1996-1997).

18 The other players to hit for the cycle in 1979 were Kansas City’s George Brett (May 28, in 16 innings against Baltimore), Boston’s Bob Watson (September 15, also against Baltimore), and Kansas City’s Frank White (September 26, against California). Coincidentally, Watson also attended Fremont High School. In 68 of the cycles through 2023, the player’s team lost the game, just over 19 percent.