October 13, 1971: Kison’s relief, May’s timely pinch hit bring Bucs into World Series tie with Birds

After the Pirates lost the first two games of the 1971 World Series to the Orioles in Baltimore, the Series moved to Pittsburgh, and the Pirates rode a complete-game three-hitter by Steve Blass to their first victory. It may have been too much for the Steel City nine to expect Game Four starter Luke Walker to duplicate Blass’s feat, but the hope was that he could keep Baltimore’s big bats in check well enough for the Pirates to pull out another win and even the Series. As it turned out, Walker failed to make it through the first inning, but reliever Bruce Kison bailed him out. Kison hurled 6⅓ innings of shutout ball, and the Bucs overcame the disappointment of Roberto Clemente’s near home run to eke out a 4-3 triumph.

Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium had opened on July 16, 1970, and a record crowd of 51,378 packed the ballpark on this October 13 evening for the major leagues’ first World Series night game.1 Game Four in 1971 took place 11 years to the day from the last World Series game played in Pittsburgh, at old Forbes Field. In that Game Seven, second baseman Bill Mazeroski hit his famous ninth-inning leadoff homer to defeat the New York Yankees, 10-9, as the underdog Pirates captured the championship. Although Mazeroski would register only one hitless at-bat in the 1971 Series, Clemente, who batted .310 against the Yankees in 1960 and had garnered at least one hit in all 10 World Series games he had played in thus far, was emerging as the star of this interleague clash.

Pittsburgh’s past glories meant nothing to the Orioles, the defending champions, who were playing in their third consecutive World Series and had captured the title over the Dodgers in 1966. The Orioles put the wood to Walker as soon as home-plate umpire Ed Vargo finished yelling, “Play Ball!” Paul Blair, Mark Belanger, and Merv Rettenmund all singled to load the bases for Frank Robinson. The two-time MVP (1961 for the National League’s Cincinnati Reds and 1966 for the Orioles in the American League) never got a chance to hit as Pirates catcher Manny Sanguillen let one of Walker’s offerings get by him and was charged with a passed ball on a play on which Blair scored the first run of the game while Belanger and Rettenmund each advanced one base.

After the passed ball, Pirates skipper Danny Murtaugh had Walker issue an intentional walk to Robinson. Third baseman Brooks Robinson, another former league MVP (1964) and the 1970 World Series MVP, now stepped to the plate. Both Brooks and Boog Powell, Baltimore’s third MVP (1970, AL) who batted next, were perhaps overeager at the sight of runners on base, but each managed to hit a sacrifice fly that scored Belanger and Rettenmund respectively.

With Baltimore already leading 3-0 and threatening to add another run, Murtaugh pulled Walker and sent Kison to the mound. The 21-year-old rookie, a 6-foot-4 string bean who was listed at a generous 178 pounds, had posted a 6-5 record with a 3.40 ERA in 18 games (13 starts) during the regular season. Exactly how much Murtaugh expected of Kison is unknown, but the gangly righty delivered far more than anyone had a right to anticipate. For starters, he induced an inning-ending grounder from Davey Johnson that ended Baltimore’s onslaught.

When Dave Cash led off the home half of the inning by drawing a walk from Orioles starter Pat Dobson, Pittsburgh fans hoped their team could score quickly as well. Things looked bleak, though, after Richie Hebner lofted a pop fly to shortstop and Clemente struck out, one of only two times he would whiff in 29 at-bats in this World Series. However, Pittsburgh had plenty of big boppers. Willie Stargell doubled to drive in Cash for the Pirates’ first run, and Al Oliver followed with another double that scored Stargell. Bob Robertson’s grounder to Dobson ended the rally, but the Pirates had closed the gap to 3-2.

Kison and Dobson both settled down after the first inning and runs became much harder to come by for the remainder of the game. Kison worked around Blair’s two-out double in the top of the second, while Dobson set the Pirates down in order in the bottom of the frame. After Kison responded in kind in the top of the third, there was excitement in the Pirates’ half of the inning.

Hebner hit a one-out single to bring up Clemente for the second time. Clemente smashed a slicing shot to right field that, from some angles, looked as though it might have been fair when it went over the wall, but right-field umpire John Rice called it a foul ball. Pirates first-base coach Don Leppert, Clemente, and Murtaugh argued with Rice to no avail. The problem did not have to do with Rice’s eyesight, or that of any players or coaches, but concerned a facet of Three Rivers Stadium’s “unusual architecture.”2 In the case of Clemente’s shot, the issue involved the fact that “[t]here [were] no orthodox foul poles, but concrete facades on which [were] painted wide white stripes. Flat against the stripes, flanked on each side by three feet of green concrete, [were] the foul screens, held in place by thin rods.”3

Clemente’s slicing drive “hit the green concrete to the foul side of the screen,” which was “about 20 inches in front of the concrete façade.”4 Thus, the illusion was created, for some, that the ball had only gone foul after clearing the wall. Frank Robinson, who was often blunt, averred, “I don’t give a damn where the white line is.… There’s no way the ball could have gone over the fence fair, hit the wall foul and the umpire could’ve called it fair. That’s it.”5

Indeed, that was it, and Clemente’s at-bat continued. The Great One calmed down and lashed a single to right field that advanced Hebner to second base. After Stargell flied out, Oliver garnered his second RBI of the day with a base hit that drove in Hebner with the tying run. Robertson again ended the Pirates’ rally with his second comebacker to Dobson on the mound, but he was to play a key role later in the game.

The Pirates failed to capitalize on two opportunities to blow the game open when they left the bases loaded in both the fifth and sixth innings. In the fifth, Clemente and Stargell banged out consecutive one-out singles, and Baltimore manager Earl Weaver had Dobson issue an intentional pass to Oliver to load the bags. This time, Robertson popped out to Belanger at shortstop and Sanguillen’s grounder ended the Pirates’ threat.

Jackie Hernandez led off the bottom of the sixth with a single and stole second base as Kison swung at strike three. He advanced to third when Cash beat out an infield single in Dobson’s direction that heralded the end of the Baltimore right-hander’s day. Lefty Grant Jackson took the mound and induced a liner to third from Hebner. He then walked Clemente (unintentionally) to load the bases, but Stargell’s grounder to second quashed the latest opportunity for Pittsburgh to take the lead.

Baltimore could only wish for scoring opportunities, whether they were to cash them in or blow them as Pittsburgh was doing. After Blair’s second-inning double, the Orioles failed to get a hit or draw a walk from either Kison or Dave Giusti, who followed him. The only Baltimore traffic on the basepaths was due to the amped-up Kison hitting a World Series-record three batters: Johnson in the fourth, Frank Robinson in the sixth, and Andy Etchebarren in the seventh.6

The Pirates finally broke through in the bottom of the seventh with relief ace Eddie Watt on the mound for Baltimore. After Oliver’s leadoff strikeout, Robertson and Sanguillen swatted singles to set up an RBI opportunity for pinch-hitter Vic Davalillo, who was batting for Hernandez. Davalillo lofted a fly ball to far right field that Blair ran after but then uncharacteristically dropped for an error. Sanguillen overran second base and was tagged out, but Robertson was at third and Davalillo on first when Milt May stepped up to pinch-hit for Kison.7 May lashed a single to right field that drove in Robertson and finally gave Pittsburgh the lead.

Cash flied out to end the seventh, but the 4-3 margin held up as the final score. Giusti, who had earned 30 saves in the regular season, set the Orioles down in order in the final two innings to earn his third save of the postseason. Thanks to stellar relief pitching and May’s timely single, the Pirates overcame the fact that they had stranded 13 batters (and 41 in four games thus far) to pull even with the Orioles in the 1971 World Series. Thanks to his three-hit performance in four at-bats, the eventual World Series MVP Clemente was 8-for-17 through the first four games.

SOURCES

The author consulted b​aseba​ll-re​feren​ce.​com and r​etros​heet.​org for the box score and play-by-play of the game.

NOTES

1 Lou Hatter, “Bucs Even Series with 4-3 Victory,” Baltimore Sun, October 14, 1971: 1.

2 Phil Musick, “Clemente Gets a Foul Ruling,” Pittsburgh Press, October 14, 1971: 33.

3 Musick.

4 Musick.

5 Musick.

6 Charley Feeney, “Kison Holds O’s, Bucs Even Set,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 14, 1971: 26.

7 Milt May happened to be the son of Pinky May, a Phillies third baseman who had played alongside current Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh from 1941 to 1943 in Philadelphia. Pinky May had managed numerous minor-league teams, and his son Milt had served as a batboy in stops at Keokuk, Dubuque, Tampa, Rock Hill, and Reading. See Bill Christine, “Orioles Feel Pinch (by May); Pirates Get Even in Series,” Pittsburgh Press, October 14, 1971: 34.