The 1971 baseball season saw Hank Aaron become the third player in major-league history to hit 600 career home runs, Rick Wise pitch a no-hitter while hitting two long balls himself, an All-Star game in which six future Hall of Famers hit homers, and the end of the second incarnation of the Washington American League franchise. In the Fall Classic, the American League Baltimore Orioles (101-57) face off (again) against the National League Champion Pittsburgh Pirates (97-65) . . .
The hitters have the upper hand in the early going at Memorial Stadium, as the clubs trade single runs in the 1st inning and Dave Cash's single gives the Pirates a 2-1 lead in the top of the 2nd. In the 3rd, Pittsburgh breaks it open on Jose Pagan's two-out, three-run home run to left and Gene Clines follows that in the 4th with a triple that scores Cash after the second baseman's two-base hit. This early barrage is way more than the Orioles were prepared to handle in Game One, as Ellis rights the ship after the rocky initial inning and holds the Birds scoreless the rest of the way, allowing only four hits. The Lumber Company continues chopping wood, as they touch up the Baltimore bullpen for six more runs in the late innings on their way to nineteen total hits, eight of which go for extra bases. Cash has four hits, three other Bucs collect three, and Pagan drives in five with a pair of home runs in a merciless beating that opens the Series on an ominous note for the O's. Pittsburgh 12-19-1, Baltimore 1-4-0. [scoresheet]
In a stark contrast to the Series opener, Palmer retires the first sixteen Pirates before Jackie Hernandez draws a walk in the 6th but is stranded at second after a sacrifice. The home team, however, has also failed to score off of Johnson, although they had threatened to do so on multiple occasions including a second-and-third, no out opportunity in the 2nd. In the 6th, though, Baltimore finally cracks the lid when Frank Robinson walks to start the inning, takes second on Johnson's wild pitch, and scores in front of Brooks Robinson's single. It is still a 1-0 game into the 8th, with Palmer working on a no-hitter; in the top half of the inning Manny Sanguillen laces a clean single to center with two outs to end half of the afternoon's drama and, in the bottom half, the Baltimore batters dispatch the rest. They greet new Pirate pitcher Bob Miller with two singles to start the inning and Frank Robinson walks (one of his four on the day, as Pittsburgh steadfastly refused to give him anything to hit) to load the bases with no one out. Curt Motton pinch hits for Elrod Hendricks and surprises everyone by dropping a squeeze bunt that scores the second Baltimore run. Miller completely loses track of the strike zone after this; a walk and a ground out score another, and two more free passes force across a third run in the inning before Bob Moose comes on to get the final out. Four days before his 26th birthday, Palmer cruises through the 9th to lock up a one-hit masterpiece in which he faced only 29 men. Baltimore 4-6-1, Pittsburgh 0-1-0. [scoresheet]
The Orioles capitalize on their day-old momentum by jumping on Blass in the opening frame. Merv Rettenmund doubles with one out and Boog Powell follows with a deep drive into the right-field seats for a quick two-run advantage. The lead expands to three in the 4th after Davey Johnson whistles a leadoff double inside the first-base bag and Cuellar pounces on a 3-1 pitch from Blass to flare onto the left-field chalk for another two-bagger. The Pirates answer this last tally in the bottom of the inning when Roberto Clemente draws a one-out walk and comes all the way around to score when Robertson rips one over the head of Rettenmund in center for a triple, but the Birds still have a 3-1 lead as the game moves into its second half. Cracks in the Oriole armor appear in the 6th when Clemente singles on a dribbler to second with one out, and Robertson follows one out later with a game-tying homer, and those become fissures in the 7th. Pinch-hitter Clines and Cash start the home half with base hits to put runners at the corners and Al Oliver skies to shallow center. Clemente bounces one to second base and Johnson throws home with Clines breaking on contact, but the throw is a beat late and Pittsburgh take the lead in the game for the first time. Stargell flies out and then Cuellar, clearly laboring at this point, gets tagged by Robertson for his second homer in two innings and the home team appears to have blown the game open. Nellie Briles takes the mound for the top of the 9th with a four-run lead, coming off a perfect 8th, and retires Don Buford and Rettenmund quickly before Powell hits his second home run of the afternoon to break the spell. Briles then pitches one into the ribs of Frank Robinson, earning a stern look from the right fielder on his way down to first base, and Hendricks grounds a single into right field to bring the tying run to the plate. That run is Brooks Robinson, and he launches the improbable game-tying long ball to left that drops a curtain of silence over a Three Rivers Stadium that had been the scene of a block party for the past inning-and-a-half. On came Pete Richert to shut down the Bucs in the bottom of 9th, but not so fast - Oliver doubled on the first pitch, Clemente was intentionally passed, Richert yanked a fastball to the backstop to move the runners up, Stargell lofted a fly ball to right that was deep enough for Oliver to beat Frank Robinson's throw home and just like that the Pirates had snatched victory and a Series lead. Robertson finished the game with eleven total bases and six RBI. Pittsburgh 8-11-0, Baltimore 7-10-0. [scoresheet]
For the second day in a row, Baltimore takes the lead on the long ball, as Johnson hits it out with two out and Brooks aboard in the 2nd to get the action started in Game Four. But Pittsburgh responds with three in the bottom half - Stargell walks to lead it off, Robertson homers (again!) to tie the game and Sanguillen hits a scorching line drive to center which Blair attempts to pick off the turf on the dive but which instead skips past him and all the way to the wall for an inside-the-park home run. Things go downhill for Dobson from there, as he walks the first two batters in the 3rd, Clemente singles home a run and Stargell crushes a three-run bomb that makes the score 7-2. Two outs later, Hernandez triples in another run to make it an 8-2 game and it looks like the Os will need another miracle comeback. It's not in the cards today, though, as the Pirates pile on in the 4th - Cash singles and Richie Hebner homers, then Clemente follows with a home run before Dobson can record an out in the inning. Dick Hall comes on in relief and, after two outs, Robertson touches him for his fourth home run in his last five plate appearances - the third Pittsburgh homer of the inning, and sixth of a game that was only 3.2 innings old. Luke Walker and Bob Veale constrict the Orioles thee rest of the way and an error and a Hebner RBI single in the 7th finish off another big day of Pirate scoring. Hebner, Stargell and Robertson each knock in three, and Clemente and Sanguillen collect three hits. Pittsburgh 14-16-0, Baltimore 2-7-1. [scoresheet]
Backs against the wall of Three Rivers for Baltimore, but it is Pittsburgh that comes out fighting. Robertson singles and Sanguillen doubles in the 2nd, then Pagan lines a two-run single to left; in the 3rd, Clines scratches out an infield hit, moves up on a hit-and-run groundout, and scores when Stargell singles to left and Buford fails to field it cleanly. In the top of the 4th, Briles came up holding his side after retiring Frank R on a ground out and he was forced to leave the game in favor of Bruce Kison, who continued to hold the American Leaguers off the scoreboard. Just when hope seemed to be at its lowest ebb, though, with nine outs remaining in their season and three runs still required, the Birds came to life. Johnson's ground ball to short was kicked by Hernandez to start the top of the 7th, and Rettenmund's pinch-hit dribbler to second for a hit one out later was the end of Kison's work day. Miller came on, and met with much of the same treatment as he had received in Game Two; Buford singled in a run and, after the second out, Powell doubled in two to tie the game at three runs apiece. Again, though, the Baltimore momentum was short-lived and Richert was the vehicle for Pittsburgh's resurgence. Cash singled with one out in the bottom half, Richert hit Clines with a pitch, and Clemente singled to put Pittsburgh back on top. That brought on Grant Jackson and, after he retired Stargell, Robertson singled home another run to make it 5-3 and everyone on both sides began counting outs once again. Dave Giusti came on for the Pirates in the save situation, and struck out two to retire the side in the 8th after Johnson's weak tapper past the mound for a single. In the 9th, Hernandez makes his third error of the game (and PIT's fifth) and Powell singles to put the tying runs on base with one out and Frank Robinson at the plate, but this time the Pirates pitch to him and Giusti gets the slugger to bang a one-hopper that Pagan turns into an around-the-horn double play which ends the game and the Series. Pittsburgh 5-12-5, Baltimore 3-8-1. [scoresheet]
Two epic blowout wins by Pittsburgh, a near-immortal performance by Palmer, and two contests where Baltimore fought their way back into the game only to be immediately pitched back out of it by their bullpen, which compiled an 8.73 ERA on 18 hits in 11.1 innings of work in the Series. But their starting pitching didn't fare much better (8.13 ERA) and there was just no chance for the Orioles to maintain contact in a Series where the Pirates were slashing 328/372/572 as a team. It was all Lumber, all the time. [Series stats]
Even with all of the heavy hitting going on in the Pittsburgh lineup, there was a clear choice for Series MVP. Pirate 1B Bob Robertson lead all hitters with 11 RBI, 6 runs scored, four homers and an absurd 1.158 slugging percentage. He knocked in six of the eight Pittsburgh runs in the narrow Game Four win, drove in the tying runs in Game Five after Baltimore had taken the early lead, and singled home the insurance run late in the clincher.
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