The Royals enjoyed a day off at home before a two-game series with Minnesota that would finish the homestand. The series against the Twins would be bracketed with off-days, so this was a nice break for the team. Texas won their game, so the Royals’ magic number to clinch the division stayed at four.

The Royals’ front office announced that they had mailed playoff tickets to about 11,250 lucky fans who had been chosen randomly from all entries mailed in a few weeks earlier. The team had received almost 85,000 requests. Due to the playoff rotation in place at the time, the AL West champion was scheduled to host Games 3, 4, and 5 of the League Championship Series, with the latter two to be played if necessary.

While Kansas City essentially had the division title locked up, the question of who they would face was still up in the air. Of the three division races, the AL East one was the only one remaining with any drama. Boston won in New York while Baltimore lost to Toronto, so the Yankees held a 3.5-game lead over both the Red Sox and Orioles.

1977 news: In a runoff election for the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor, Ed Koch defeated Mario Cuomo by a hefty margin, taking 55% of the vote. However, Cuomo announced that he would run in the general election on the Liberal Party ticket. That set up a nasty campaign before the November 8 election, with Cuomo supporters using the slogan “Vote for Cuomo, Not the Homo” (which Cuomo himself disavowed) while Koch supporters claimed Cuomo was anti-Semitic and were accused of throwing eggs at their opponents’ campaign vehicles.

Today’s birthdays: Lenny DiNardo (1979), Danny Valencia (1984)