August 23, 1970: Roberto Clemente racks up second 5-hit game of weekend

Days after celebrating his 36th birthday on August 18, 1970 – and hours after his five hits and go-ahead run helped the Pittsburgh Pirates maintain their National League East lead with a Saturday-night extra-inning win over the Los Angeles Dodgers – Roberto Clemente seized a spot in baseball’s record books on August 23 at Dodger Stadium. Clemente’s three singles, double, and home run made him just the third player in major-league history with back-to-back games of five hits or more, as he led the Pirates to an 11-0 win over the Dodgers.

Clemente’s summer – the 16th of his distinguished career in Pittsburgh – had been an eventful one. After initially declining an All-Star Game invitation, he reconsidered and hit a game-tying sacrifice fly in the National League’s 12-inning win on July 14.1 Two days later, the Pirates opened Three Rivers Stadium,2 and a night honoring Clemente came soon afterward, on July 24.3 Some of the headlines were bizarre and disturbing: Clemente revealed in August that he had been abducted after a game in San Diego the previous season.4

Hit on his wrist by a pitch on July 25, Clemente was sidelined for all but a single pinch-running appearance during a two-week span as August began,5 but he was back in right field, batting third and ranking second among eligible National Leaguers with a .349 batting average,6 as the Pirates made their second California trip of the season to open a series in Los Angeles on August 21. “His birth certificate says he is 36-years-old today,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette asserted.7 “He is a young 36. A mere baby who happens to play baseball with a certain flair that excites fans.”8

With club home-run leader Willie Stargell sidelined with a leg injury9 and youthful teammates like Al Oliver, Bob Robertson, and Manny Sanguillen in their first pennant race, Clemente knew Pittsburgh depended on his leadership. “If we’re going to win,” he said before the Pirates left for the West Coast, “I might have to have a good trip.”10 In baseball’s second season of divisional play, the Pirates were in first place in August for the first time since 1966 and only the second time since their 1960 World Series championship.

In the series opener against the Dodgers, Clemente singled in the tying run in the fifth inning, but the Pirates were otherwise fruitless against Claude Osteen in a 2-1 loss.11 The second-place New York Mets beat the Cincinnati Reds and were now only 1½ games back,12 raising the stakes when Pittsburgh’s Bob Moose faced Los Angeles’s Don Sutton on Saturday evening.

Clemente rapped out three singles against Sutton, tying the game with an RBI hit in the third, but that was the last scoring for a while. Former Pirate Pete Mikkelsen was pitching in the 14th inning, with the score 1-1, when Clemente singled for his fourth hit, but Pittsburgh left the bases loaded.

Clemente led off the 16th against Mikkelsen by hustling out a single to short, his fifth hit of the game, and stealing second. Two outs later, Jerry May singled to left, and Clemente scored the tiebreaking run. Bruce Dal Canton, Pittsburgh’s fourth pitcher of the night, closed out the Dodgers in the bottom of the 16th, with Manny Mota‘s popup settling into Robertson’s glove in foul territory outside first base just minutes before midnight in Los Angeles.13

The late finish left Clemente with only a short night of rest; a characteristically light sleeper,14 he was awake at 6 A.M. on Sunday, “his metabolism attuned to Pittsburgh time,” the Pittsburgh Press reported.15 But he was on the field that afternoon, a required presence with Stargell still ailing. “We needed [Clemente’s] big bat in the lineup with Willie out,” manager Danny Murtaugh explained afterward.16

Limited to three runs in the first 25 innings of the series, the Pirates quickly found their groove against Los Angeles’s Alan Foster. Freddie Patek led off the first with a single. One out later, he raced to third on Clemente’s single to center; when Willie Davis threw to third, Clemente took second.

Oliver grounded to third; Patek broke for the plate. Jim Lefebvre appeared to have a play at home but took the out at first as Patek scored and Clemente advanced to third.17 Robertson’s single drove in Clemente, and the Pirates had an early 2-0 lead.

Steve Blass, a three-day beard growing on his unshaven face,18 took the mound for Pittsburgh. Six weeks earlier, on July 12, a line drive by St. Louis’s Joe Torre appeared to break Blass’s right elbow.19 Further examination, however, revealed that it was only a bruise,20 and the 28-year-old’s first two starts back from the disabled list had continued his return to form after he lost six straight decisions earlier in the season: 13 innings pitched, two earned runs allowed.21

Against the Dodgers, Blass allowed Mota’s one-out single to center in the first, but Mota aggravated an ankle injury rounding the bag, and Matty Alou‘s throw to Robertson trapped him for the out.22 Davis followed by grounding a single off first, but Blass retired Wes Parker to keep the Dodgers scoreless.

Blass started up Pittsburgh’s offense in the second with a one-out walk. Alou’s bunt single moved him to second, and Clemente singled Blass home for a 3-0 lead.

The Pirates broke the game open in the fourth. Patek doubled to lead off the inning; another Alou infield single pushed him to third. Clemente drove in Patek with a double to center, his third hit of the game. Dodgers manager Walter Alston pulled Foster for left-hander Fred Norman.

Norman retired the first two Pirates he faced before allowing Sanguillen’s double to left-center. Alou and Clemente scored, and Pittsburgh’s advantage was 6-0.

The bottom of Pittsburgh’s batting order sustained the attack in the fifth and sixth. Bill Mazeroski, who had his first four-hit game in nearly five years, opened the fifth with a double and took third on Blass’s bunt single. Patek singled in Mazeroski for Pittsburgh’s seventh run.

Sanguillen started the Pirates in the sixth with a single. Mazeroski singled him to second one out later. Blass, now borrowing some of Clemente’s batting equipment, dropped down a bunt toward third; when Norman booted the ball, Sanguillen came in from second. The play was scored a hit and an error on Norman, and the Pirates led, 8-0.

“I was wearing Roberto’s batting helmet and using his bat,” Blass said.23 “Why shouldn’t I? There was a law passed here this morning that Clemente isn’t allowed to make an out anymore.”24

After giving up the two hits in the first, Blass had hit his stride. Working around a bruised tendon on the middle finger of his right hand by de-emphasizing his fastball and throwing mostly off-speed pitches,25 Blass retired Los Angeles in order in the second, third, fourth, and fifth innings. Bill Russell broke the streak of 13 outs in a row by walking to lead off the sixth, but Maury Wills lined into a double play one out later, and the Dodgers remained scoreless.

Knuckleballer Charlie Hough, promoted from the Spokane Indians of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League 12 days earlier and making his fifth major-league appearance, replaced Norman in the seventh. Clemente greeted the 22-year-old right-hander – who threw his final big-league pitch nearly 24 years later, in July 1994 – with his fourth hit of the game, a single to left. Oliver, with one hit in his last 19 at-bats, crushed Hough’s pitch into the right-field pavilion; the Pittsburgh Press observed that Oliver “stopped and admired the shot, Harmon Killebrew style.”26 Oliver’s 12th homer of the year made it 10-0.

Clemente capped his big day – and big weekend – by driving another home run into the left-field seats in the eighth. It was his 14th homer of 1970, his fifth hit of the game, and his 10th hit in less than 24 hours against the franchise that had first signed him in 1954, then lost him to the Pirates in that winter’s Rule 5 draft.27

Murtaugh sent in Gene Clines to play right in the eighth; Clemente’s day was done. Blass closed out the shutout, allowing hits in the eighth and ninth to finish with a four-hitter.

Clemente was only the third major leaguer ever – and, as of 2021, the most recent – to have back-to-back games with five or more hits. In 1876 the first season of NL play, Cal McVey of the Chicago White Stockings had consecutive six-hit games, three days apart.28 The Brooklyn Robins’ Hi Myers had back-to-back five-hit games in August 1917.29

Only a fifth-inning lineout kept Clemente from a perfect day at the plate. His weekend barrage boosted his season average to .363, tops in the NL.

The league’s schedule-maker finally allowed Clemente the opportunity to rest; the Pirates had an offday on Monday, August 24.

“I know that right now my muscles, they ache and that I welcome a day of rest [on Monday],” Clemente said.30 “When I hit, you see, I look for situations because you know I cannot get a hit all the time because nobody is perfect.”31

SOURCES

In addition to the Sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the B​aseba​ll-Re​feren​ce.​com and R​etros​heet.​org websites for pertinent material and the box scores noted below. He also used game coverage from the Los Angeles Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Pittsburgh Press newspapers.

h​ttps:​//www​.base​ball-​refer​ence.​com/b​oxes/​LAN/L​AN197​00823​0.​shtml

h​ttps:​//www​.retr​oshee​t.org​/boxe​setc/​1970/​B0823​0LAN1​970.h​tm

NOTES

1 Bill Christine, “Clemente Slams Phils, Snubs Stars: Roberto’s HR Keys Pirates’ 4-2 Win,” Pittsburgh Press, July 8, 1970: 61; “Clemente Says He’ll Play in All-Star Game,” Pittsburgh Press, July 11, 1970: 6; Roy McHugh, “Roberto’s Reverse,” Pittsburgh Press, July 15, 1970: 63.

2 “Division-Leading Pirates, Reds Open Sports Palace,” Pittsburgh Press, July 16, 1970: 1.

3 “Clemente Shines on His Night,” Pittsburgh Press, July 25, 1970: 6.

4 Bill Christine, “Clemente Reveals Abduction,” Pittsburgh Press, August 10, 1970: 27.

5 “Swollen Wrist Sidelines Clemente,” Pittsburgh Press, July 27, 1970: 23.

6 Rico Carty of the Atlanta Braves led the NL with a .357 average. “League Leaders,” Pittsburgh Press, August 21, 1970: 31.

7 Charley Feeney, “The Old Guy,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 18, 1970: 19.

8 Feeney, “The Old Guy.”

9 Newspaper coverage of the Pirates’ final game before their California trip, a 7-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants on August 19, reported that Stargell played despite a pulled muscle in his left leg. Stargell had 25 home runs to date in 1970; his 31 homers in 136 games led the Pirates, but it was the only season from 1968 through 1975 in which he did not finish in the top 10 in the NL in home runs. Charley Feeney, “Giants Crimp Buc Bid, 7-4, as Mets Lose: Juan Marichal Goes Route Under 13-Hit Barrage,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 20, 1970: 30.

10 Roy McHugh, “In No Hurry to Hit,” Pittsburgh Press, August 24, 1970: 26.

11 Bill Christine, “Bucs Lose – Blame Rookie Umpire: Tremblay’s Call Causes Downfall, 2-1,” Pittsburgh Press, August 22, 1970: 6.

12 Dana Mozley, “Kooz Cools Reds, 4-1; Bud Boots 2,” New York Daily News, August 22, 1970: 30.

13 Bill Christine, “Pirates Nip Dodgers in 16th, 2-1: Moose Goes 10, Snuffs Early Rally,” Pittsburgh Press, August 23, 1970: 4, 1.

14 “Roberto Clemente – hypochondriac or not, public agonizer or not – didn’t sleep worth a damn,” wrote Pittsburgh sportswriter Phil Musick in a 1974 biography. Phil Musick, Who Was Roberto?: A Biography of Roberto Clemente, (New York: Doubleday, 1974), 180.

15 Roy McHugh, “In No Hurry to Hit,” Pittsburgh Press, August 24, 1970: 26.

16 Bill Christine, “Clemente Engineers Destruction of Dodgers,” Pittsburgh Press, August 24, 1970: 26.

17 Christine, “Clemente Engineers Destruction of Dodgers.”

18 “I hate to shave,” Blass told the Pittsburgh Press afterward. Christine, “Clemente Engineers Destruction of Dodgers.”

19 “Broken Arm May Sideline Steve Blass for 3 Weeks,” Pittsburgh Press, July 13, 1970: 26.

20 Roy McHugh, “An X-Ray of Hope.”

21 “Blass Ready for Anything: Pitcher Proves He’s Not Gun-Shy,” Pittsburgh Press, August 19, 1970: 70.

22 John Wiebusch, “Dodgers Grow Weary of ‘Sleepy’ Clemente: Pirate Slugger Tired but Sets Two-Game Hitting Record With 10; L.A. Inexplicably Loses Punch, Blanked, 11-0,” Los Angeles Times, August 24, 1970: III, 1.

23 Christine, “Clemente Engineers Destruction of Dodgers.”

24 Christine, “Clemente Engineers Destruction of Dodgers.”

25 Christine, “Clemente Engineers Destruction of Dodgers.”

26 “Ellis Hunts Scapegoat: Blames ‘Somebody’ for Arm Trouble,” Pittsburgh Press, August 24, 1970: 26.

27 David Maraniss, Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks: 2006), 36-37, 56-57. The Pirates selected Clemente from the Dodgers, then based in Brooklyn, in accordance with bonus rules in effect from 1953 to 1957. Edgar Munzel, “Bankrolls Now Only Limit on Bonus Bids,” The Sporting News, December 18, 1957: 11. Clemente hit well in all three of the Dodgers’ home ballparks as a Pirate. In 98 plate appearances at Ebbets Field between 1955 and 1957, he hit .323/.351/.441. His batting line at the Los Angeles Coliseum, where the Dodgers played from 1958 through 1961, was .331/.362/.426. While Dodger Stadium is regarded as a pitchers’ park, Clemente hit .377/.419/.481 in 344 plate appearances between 1962 and 1972.

28 McVey had six hits in seven at-bats in the White Stockings’ 30-7 win over the Louisville Grays on July 22, 1876. “Pastimes: Seventh Victory of the Whites Over the Louisvilles an Extraordinary Display of Scientific Batting,” Chicago Tribune, July 23, 1876: 7. The White Stockings’ next game, a 23-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds, was three days later; McVey again had six hits in seven at-bats in that game. “Base-Ball: Another Scalp,” Chicago Tribune, July 26, 1876: 5.

29 On August 21, 1917, Myers had five hits in six at-bats when Brooklyn tied Pittsburgh 3-3 in 13 innings, in a matchup of the same two franchises involved in the August 1970 Dodgers-Pirates series. Rice, “Each Side Scores Two Runs in an Extra Inning Rally,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 22, 1917: 2. A day later, the Robins outlasted the Pirates 6-5 in 22 innings – in what was at that time the longest game by innings in NL history – and Myers had five hits in 10 at-bats. Rice, “Superbas Winners in 22 Innings and Break League Record,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 23, 1917: 14.

30 Wiebusch, “Dodgers Grow Weary of ‘Sleepy’ Clemente.”

31 Wiebusch. Clemente finished 1970 with a .352 batting average but a back injury that kept him out of action for two weeks in September left him without enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title. He returned to the lineup in time for the Pirates’ three-game sweep of the Mets on September 25-27 that finally clinched the division title for Pittsburgh.