We continue our "25 Greatest Oakland A's Wins" series with Win #18 and a return to October 8th, 1974. For those of you who are just joining us for the countdown to opening day, last week we featured Game 4 of the 1974 World Series. This week, we’ll be highlighting one of the other incredible wins of the great run in 1974. Let's go back to Game 3 of the 1974 American League Championship Series.
The A’s were 1-1 with the Baltimore Orioles in the best of 5 games series. Catfish Hunter had been knocked around in a 6-3 loss at home in Oakland to start out the series. Ken Holtzman would answer back for the A’s by throwing a complete game shutout against the O’s in a 5-0 win that saw Sal Bando and Ray Fosse go deep. The series would be heading to Baltimore for an ever important Game 3. On the mound for the Orioles would be their Hall of Fame ace, Jim Palmer and on the mound for the A’s would be Vida Blue.
Blue already had built a reputation as a solid left-handed pitcher. Baseball Historian Bill James has remarked that Vida Blue was the hardest throwing lefty and only Nolan Ryan threw harder in that era. Blue had won the Cy Young and MVP (a la Clayton Kershaw) in 1971 after throwing 312 innings, striking out 301, and finishing with a 1.82 ERA. He was only 21 years old when he had that magical season but in 1972 he struggled mightily, even getting pulled from the rotation. He still ended up playing a major role out of the bullpen for the A’s in their 1972 World Series title run. Blue would bounce back in 1973 by carrying the load all year long and performing well despite the drop in strikeouts. The year 1974 was very similar to his 1973 season when you compare ERA (3.25 vs 3.28, respectively) but his record was 17-15 which suggests that his run support and bullpen didn’t exactly help him out. The ability was always there for the small lefty from Mansfield, Louisiana, but later on in his career, Vida Blue would struggle with the drug culture which would derail his surefire Hall of Fame ability.
Certainly, the numbers indicated that the 1974 A’s team was a lot better than their record. The 1974 A's ended the year with a run differential of +138 and their Pythagorean Record was 97-65 which was much more dominant than their actual record of 90-72. The heart and soul of the team was their leadoff hitter Bert Campaneris who, at the age of 32, was still producing at a tremendous rate. Campy's slashline was .290/.347/.366. He was one of the elite leadoff hitters of the 1970s and in a similar class as Joe Morgan and Davey Lopes. The A’s regular number 2 hitter was Bill North and he had a tremendous season on the base paths stealing 54 bases. With Campaneris and North at the top of the lineup, manager Alvin Dark had plenty of opportunities for steals, bunts, hit and runs. In the middle of the order, Reggie Jackson had another complete season finishing with an OPS of .905 to go along with 29 homers and 25 stolen bases. Adding to the offensive force of 1974, Gene Tenace, Sal Bando, and Joe Rudi hit a combined 70 home runs between the 3 of them.
The A’s and Orioles already had a long postseason history with one another, as the Orioles swept the A’s in the 1971 ALCS. The A’s would fireback in 1973, by beating them in the deciding 5th game to win the pennant. The two clubs seemed evenly matched in some areas, but with the Orioles relying more on solid starting pitching.
With Baltimore sharing a certain kinship of sorts in terms of a gritty city in the shadow of another more “glorious” city (for Oakland: San Francisco, Baltimore: Washington DC), it was fitting that these two teams had to square off so many times in the postseason.
Game 3 of the ALCS would start at 2:07 pm on a Tuesday in Baltimore in front of an attendance of 32,000. Jim Palmer had faced Vida Blue twice before in the postseason. The first time was in 1973 and in that game Palmer pitched a complete game shutout and the Orioles knocked Vida Blue out of the game in the first inning before going on to win 6-0. Palmer and Blue would face each other again in another game the 1973 series, but the second time it would be Palmer who'd exit early as the A’s rocked him in the second inning and he was given the quick hook. Blue wasn't able to go too deep into the game and his bullpen let him down as the Orioles managed to come back and win. In some ways, this game was the rubber match of this series of heavyweight fights.
Game 3 of the ALCS would start at 2:07 pm on a Tuesday in Baltimore in front of an attendance of 32,000. Jim Palmer had faced Vida Blue twice before in the postseason. The first time was in 1973 and in that game Palmer pitched a complete game shutout and the Orioles knocked Vida Blue out of the game in the first inning before going on to win 6-0. Palmer and Blue would face each other again in another game the 1973 series, but the second time it would be Palmer who'd exit early as the A’s rocked him in the second inning and he was given the quick hook. Blue wasn't able to go too deep into the game and his bullpen let him down as the Orioles managed to come back and win. In some ways, this game was the rubber match of this series of heavyweight fights.
The game started as many would expect, both starters would retire the first 6 batters they faced, striking many out and producing weak contact in other cases. The top of the 3rd inning finally showed a small bit of offensive as Palmer hit the 19 year old Claudell Washington. This was erased as the next batter, Ray Fosse jumped at a Palmer pitch and lined it at Orioles star third basemen Brooks Robinson who snagged it out of the air and threw it back to first to double off Washington and that quickly, it was two outs. Dick Green would get a rare hit but nothing would come of it as Campaneris weakly grounded out to end the inning.
In the 3rd, Vida Blue would face the bottom of the order, and once again, he’d face no trouble. Vida would strikeout two of the three batters and get the other to fly out. If it wasn’t clear to the Orioles it sure was now, Vida Blue was bringing his A-game and the O's were going to have to really grind to get anything off him. Vida Blue would often run into trouble when his 100 mph fastball wasn’t finding the strike zone and would correspondingly be prone to walking batters. However, this was not one of those days.
The top of the 4th would be the most important inning of the game. After Bill North flew out to start the inning, Captain Sal Bando would do something more impactful then he could possibly imagine. With Palmer appearing on his A-game as well, any runs were definitely going to be decisive. In soccer, when a game is deadlocked at 0-0 and the captain of the team scores what appears to be a decisive goal it’s often called a “captain’s goal”. Well, if there’s ever such thing as a “Captain’s Jack,” I think Bando provided it as he took Palmer deep to stun the Baltimore crowd and put Oakland in front 1-0. Sal Bando was the only real captain in Oakland A’s history, though some indicate that Carney Lansford captained the team in the late 80s, and in many ways Lansford and Bando are quite similar.
Reggie Jackson would reach on an error, but Rudi and Tenace would weakly groundout and the A’s wouldn’t be able to add on. In the bottom of the fourth, Vida Blue continued to stroll along. He’d start the inning with a strikeout followed by forcing a weak groundout. With two outs, the Orioles number 3 hitter, Bobby Grich, would take the zero off the hit column as he singled up the middle. Blue obviously wasn’t fazed as he struck out Tommy Davis in the next at bat to end the inning and send another message to the Orioles.
19 year old Claudell Washington would not show any fear against Jim Palmer as he started out the top of the 5th with a single and reached base for the second time in the game. Dark would put the bunt sign on and Ray Fosse successfully executed the sacrifice as Washington advanced to second. Palmer would flash his poise by getting Dick Green to strikeout and forcing the pesky Campaneris to fly out and strand Washington at second.
Vida Blue would face a little trouble in the bottom of the 5th, though it wasn’t as a result of his doing. A rare Dick Green error would put Brooks Robinson on with one out but as usual, Blue would make the feat meaningless as he forced the next two Orioles batters to fly out and end the inning.
Jim Palmer had clearly settled down if he hadn’t done so already as he produced a one-two-three inning in the top of the 6th to keep the score at a 1-0 deficit for the Orioles. Vida Blue would match. The Orioles even tried to bunt for a hit to start the inning but not even the bunt attempt could produce results.
Palmer would face the A’s 5-6-7 hitters in the top of the 7th. He’d strikeout Joe Rudi to start the inning but then Palmer showed a moment of wildness and walked Gene Tenace. A’s Manager Alvin Dark then called over the infamous “designated runner” Herb Washington. Herb Washington was an NCAA Champion sprinter who was noticed by Charlie Finley. He hadn’t played baseball since high school and throughout his career, Washington played in 105 games without ever playing in the field or batting. He was there to do one thing, and one thing only: wreck havoc on the base paths as a pinch runner. Washington had stolen 29 bases while being caught 16 times during the season. In this game, Herb Washington would pinch run for Gene Tenace as Dark understood that the A’s wouldn’t have many, if any, other chances to add on to the slender 1-0 lead. The former Michigan State Spartan was clearly going to try to steal second, and Orioles catcher Andy Etchebarren would win the battle by throwing Herb Washington out while Claudell Washington (no relation to Herb) was at the plate. The caught steal would fizzle out any chance of a rally and Claudell Washington flew out to center to end the inning.
Jim Holt would come into play first and replace Herb Washington in the bottom of the 7th. Vida Blue would face the middle of the order of the Orioles. Bobby Grich would show once again that he was the only Orioles player able to square up Blue’s pitches and he hit a ball right on the screws but unfortunately for him, it was hit right at Dick Green who dealt with it for the first out. In the next at bat, Blue would force a pop out. Then came young Don Baylor who singled for the Orioles' second hit of the day. The Orioles would then get aggressive by making Don Baylor steal, and like Herb Washington, Baylor would get gunned down by Ray Fosse to end the inning.
The 8th inning would see no base runners as Palmer and Blue showed no signs of tiring. In the 9th inning, Reggie Jackson would get a two out single off of Palmer but it would be followed by a Joe Rudi strikeout to end the top half.
Vida Blue was three outs away from going the distance and putting the exclamation point on his marvelous performance and most importantly give the A’s their second win of the five games series. Blue would retire the first batter with a weak groundout to Dick Green. Then Blue would strikeout the pinch hitter, Enos Cabell for the second out. With one out away, Paul Blair would ground to Dick Green at second and unbelievably, Green made another error which kept the Orioles alive! Next up was Bobby Grich, but he would not be able to do anything with the base runner on as he grounded to Bert Campaneris at shortstop who stepped on second base to end the game. The A’s had won 1-0 and taken a 2-1 series lead which they’d never look back from.
Vida Blue was three outs away from going the distance and putting the exclamation point on his marvelous performance and most importantly give the A’s their second win of the five games series. Blue would retire the first batter with a weak groundout to Dick Green. Then Blue would strikeout the pinch hitter, Enos Cabell for the second out. With one out away, Paul Blair would ground to Dick Green at second and unbelievably, Green made another error which kept the Orioles alive! Next up was Bobby Grich, but he would not be able to do anything with the base runner on as he grounded to Bert Campaneris at shortstop who stepped on second base to end the game. The A’s had won 1-0 and taken a 2-1 series lead which they’d never look back from.
The game itself is right up there with one of best pitched games in postseason history. Vida Blue’s line read as followed: 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 SO and a Game Score of 90.
Using the Game Score metric, this was Blue’s best game he ever pitched in the postseason, the next best was a score of 57. This was his 4th game where he received a Game Score over 90. To compare, Clayton Kershaw’s no-hitter from last season received a score of 102. On the other side, Jim Palmer’s line read: 9 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO and a Game Score of 78. Just about any other game, Palmer would’ve done enough to have won the game, but not on this day. Last major factoid: the game lasted 1 hour and 57 minutes and since 1946 only 3 postseason games were shorter. Going forward, no postseason game after this would finish shorter than two hours.
Using the Game Score metric, this was Blue’s best game he ever pitched in the postseason, the next best was a score of 57. This was his 4th game where he received a Game Score over 90. To compare, Clayton Kershaw’s no-hitter from last season received a score of 102. On the other side, Jim Palmer’s line read: 9 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO and a Game Score of 78. Just about any other game, Palmer would’ve done enough to have won the game, but not on this day. Last major factoid: the game lasted 1 hour and 57 minutes and since 1946 only 3 postseason games were shorter. Going forward, no postseason game after this would finish shorter than two hours.
You don’t hear much about this game but honestly, we all should hear about it a lot more. It was a rare game with a lot of interesting angles and above all else it was an incredible battle with two titans on the mound!
Stay tuned for #17!
-- Wes
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