Royals Crown Yankees, 10-4; Even A.L. Playoffs at One-All

Sixteen once again proved to be the magic number in Kansas City yesterday as the Royals roared back to life in Game Two of the American League playoffs, smothering the New York Yankees by a 10-4 score and evening the series at one game apiece.

Oh Boy

Monday night it was the Yankees who pounded out 16 hits en route to a 7-1 triumph, but yesterday the tide shifted the other way, with the Royals creaming 16 hits, chasing New York starter and loser Ed Figueroa in the second inning.

Six Royals notched RBIs, with the big blow coming on little Fred Patek's two-run homer into the left-field seats in the seventh off Dick Tidrow, who otherwise pitched fairly well in 52/3 innings of relief.

Boring

Larry Gura, the former Yankee hurler, did not look particularly overwhelming on the mound, giving up ten hits in seven-plus frames, but he managed to scatter the hits widely enough to keep the New York sluggers at bay until late in the game.

The Royals picked up a run in the first on singles by George Brett (2-for-5) and Amos Otis (3-for-5, 1 RBI) and a Darrel Porter sacrifice. In the second inning, though, they broke the game open, scoring four runs on five hits and a bizarre error by Yankee shortstop Bucky Dent, who hit Clint Hurdle in the back while trying to throw him out at third.

Figueroa, who had been having trouble getting his breaking stuff over, then came completely unstrung, giving up a two-run single to light-hitting Frank White. That blow made the score 5-0 and sent "Senor Stopper" to the showers.

Blew It

Meanwhile, the Yankees kept blowing opportunities to score against Gura (16-4 on the year). Dent and Munson grounded into double plays to kill potential rallies in the second and third innings, and going into the seventh frame the World Champs had but four hits and no runs.

Good defense by the New York infield and solid pitching by cap-tugger Tidrow kept the Royals in check at 5-0 until the deciding seventh inning.

Chris Chambliss (4-for-4, 1 RBI) lined a single to right, and Roy White followed with an identical poke. Pinch hitter "Heathcliff" Johnson grounded out to second, but Dent, the man who made thousands of Bostonians miserable on Monday, lined a single to right, collecting two of his three RBIs. When Mickey Rivers followed with yet another single, Royals manager Whitey Herzog yanked Gura in favor of 35-year-old Marty Pattin, who struggled out of the inning.

With the score 5-2, the Royals went back to work. After Porter flied out, Pete LaCock rattled a double off the wall in right. Clint Hurdle, the man who forced John Mayberry to learn the words to "O Canada," then slammed a belt-high fastball to right field. Reggie Jackson went back to the wall, jumped...and came down with nothing. Hurdle ended up with a triple, and after a crash-bang play at the plate for the second out, Patek hit Tidrow's final pitch out of the park.

Though the Yanks scored twice again in the eighth on four hits, the Royals answered back with two more runs in their half of the eighth, accounting for the final 10-4 score.

With the series tied at 1-1, the two teams take today off to fly to New York, where they will go at it again Friday afternoon. Probable starters: Paul Splittorff and Catfish Hunter.