August 25, 1971: Roberto Clemente records 5-hit game for the final time

Roberto Clemente played his entire 18-year career with the Pirates and recorded exactly 3,000 base hits, one of 32 players to reach that coveted mark as of 2021. He had a .317 batting average in 2,433 games.

Clemente had four hits in 39 games and five hits in eight games, the final time on August 25, 1971, against the Atlanta Braves.

Entering the final game of a four-game series in Atlanta, the Pirates had a record of 76-55, which placed them atop the National League East standings with a 4½-game lead over the second-place St. Louis Cardinals.1 The Braves were in third place in the National League West standings with a record of 68-65 and trailed the first-place San Francisco Giants by 9½ games. Pittsburgh was trying for its second straight division championship, while the Braves hoped to improve on a fifth-place finish in 1970.

In its 10 previous games, Pittsburgh had five wins and five losses, while Atlanta was 4-6. Pittsburgh won the first two games of the series. Atlanta came back with a win in game three.

Clemente began August with a .336 batting average and entered the series finale with a .329 mark. The star right fielder already had 40 multi-hit games in the 1971 season and had enjoyed a four-hit game three times: May 8, May 19, and June 23.

Atlanta was dealing with a controversy before the game. The slugger Rico Carty was involved in a brawl that left him with two black eyes, a split finger, and bruises that Atlanta Mayor Sam Massell called a case of “blatant brutality.” White police officers C.T. Turner and L.B. Smith were both off-duty when the fight happened. Officer J.R McEarchern tried to break up the brawl but was struck by Carty. The incident began after Carty and his brother-in-law, Carlos Martinez, pulled behind a patrol car before midnight on August 25. Another car pulled beside the patrol car, and the driver said, “These n—— are harassing me.” Carty left his car and a fight ensued. Massell suspended all three officers without pay and said they would have to stand trial before the aldermen’s police committee. Carty was charged with “[having] created a turmoil and simple battery on a police officer.” (Carty led the NL with a .366 batting average in 1970 but would miss the entire 1971 season due to a knee injury.)2

Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh chose as his starter rookie Bruce Kison, who had three wins and four losses with a 3.09 earned-run average in 10 appearances (nine of them starts.) Kison was matched against Pat Jarvis, who was in his sixth season and making his 21st start of the campaign. Jarvis was 5-11 with a 3.74 earned-run average.

The 5-foot-10-inch, right-handed Jarvis found himself in quick trouble. Rennie Stennett, Al Oliver, and Clemente all singled to load the bases in the first inning. Jarvis nearly wiggled out of the jam. He struck out Willie Stargell and Bob Robertson but then gave up consecutive singles to Milt May, Dave Cash, Jackie Hernandez, and Kison that gave the Pirates a 5-0 lead. Atlanta manager Lum Harris replaced Jarvis with right-hander Bob Priddy. Priddy gave up another single, to Stennett, that scored Hernandez. The Pirates took a 6-0 lead before the Braves had even batted.

After Hank Aaron slammed a two-run homer in the bottom of the first inning,3 the Pirates resumed their scoring onslaught in the second. Clemente reached on his second single of the game and scored on Stargell’s two-run homer. Robertson followed Stargell by slamming another home run to give Pittsburgh a 9-2 lead.

In the second inning, Kison, a slender 6-foot-4 righty, gave up inning-opening singles to Mike Lum and Sonny Jackson. After Marty Perez‘s grounder forced Jackson at second base, with Lum taking third, Kison committed a balk that allowed Lum to score and narrow Pittsburgh’s lead to 9-3.

Pittsburgh did not score in the third inning, but Clemente got his third hit of the day, a single. In the Atlanta half of the third, Kison allowed singles to Ralph Garr and Aaron, and was replaced on the mound by Bob Moose. Earl Williams doubled to score Garr, with Aaron taking third base. A sacrifice fly by Darrell Evans scored Aaron, and after Lum popped out to third base, Jackson singled to score Williams.

The Pirates led 10-6 going into the top of the fifth inning and, with one out, Clemente got his fourth single of the day off the new Braves pitcher, Jim Nash, and scored on a single by Stargell and an error by Jackson in center field. After Robertson struck out, a single by May scored Stargell to give the Pirates a 12-6 lead.

In the seventh inning, Clemente flied out to center field off Steve Barber, who had replaced Nash.

Hernandez led off the top of the ninth with a single and went to second on a passed ball. Bob Miller walked and Stennett’s sacrifice advanced the runners to second and third. Tom Kelley had come on in relief for Atlanta to start the ninth and, with one out, Oliver hit a sacrifice fly to score Hernandez and give Pittsburgh a 13-6 advantage.

Clemente was the next batter, and he singled, his fifth single of the day. Stargell struck out to end the inning.

Miller remained in the game and after two fly outs he gave up a single to Williams. He got Evans to ground out to end the game. The Pirates came away with the 13-6 victory.

The Atlanta Constitution’s Wayne Minshew wrote, “Ringling Brothers would have paid a fortune for some of the things seen in the game and Ed Sullivan would still be on the air if he had them.”4

Clemente’s five hits and three runs scored led the Pirates. May (three hits, three RBIs), Cash (three hits, including a double and a triple), and Hernandez (three hits, two runs scored, two RBIs) also made significant contributions, as did Stargell and Robertson with their home runs The Pirates maintained their five-game lead in the National League East.

Moose got the win in relief of Kison and improved his record to 9-7, while Miller secured his eighth save.

Garr, Lum, and Jackson, who all had three hits, led the Atlanta offense. Jarvis, who left in the first frame, took the loss. The Braves used five relievers to finish the game – Priddy, Ron Herbel, Nash, Barber, and Kelly.

Pittsburgh went on to capture the division title by seven games over the St. Louis Cardinals, defeated the San Francisco Giants in the National League Championship Series three games to one, and bested the Baltimore Orioles in seven games in the World Series.

The Braves finished the season in third place in the West, eight games behind the Giants.

Clemente hit a team-high .341 in 1971 and finished fourth in the NL batting race. (The Cardinals’ Joe Torre led the league with a .363 average.) Clemente finished the season with 2,882 hits. The next season he got his 3,000th career hit in the next-to-last game of his career, a double off Jon Matlack in the fourth inning of a 5-0 Pirates win over the New York Mets on September 30.

SOURCES

In addition to the game story and box-score sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the B​aseba​ll-Re​feren​ce.​com and R​etros​heet.​org websites.

h​ttps:​//www​.base​ball-​refer​ence.​com/b​oxes/​ATL/A​TL197​10825​0.​sh​tml

h​ttps:​//www​.retr​oshee​t.org​/boxe​setc/​1971/​B0825​0ATL1​971​.htm

NOTES

1 B​aseba​ll-Re​feren​ce.​com reflects the 4½-game lead over the Cardinals and Cubs on August 24. The Cardinals won the suspended game of August 1, which was made up on September 7. Were one to count the August 1 game in the August 24 standings, the lead would have been five games.

2 “3 Charged in Beating of Carty,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 26, 1971: 13.

3 It was the 38th home run of the season and the 630th of Aaron’s career. See New York Daily News, August 26, 1971: 61.

4 Wayne Minshew, “Pirates Thunder by Braves, 13-6,” Atlanta Constitution, August 26, 1972: 67.