May 1, 1977 - Yankees 5, Mariners 2

NEW YORK – It was tough to tell what was busier on this Sunday afternoon in the Bronx; the Cross-Bronx Expressway, or the base paths when the Mariners were batting.

Ken Holtzman got credit for the victory, aided by three innings of saving relief by Sparky Lyle, but he certainly wasn’t very effective and you would think if the Yankees were playing an established team and not the woeful expansion Mariners, there’s no way they would have won this game.

“I was struggling,” said Holtzman, who in his six eventful innings yielded 10 hits and two walks, yet was touched for only two runs. “My control was inconsistent and there wasn’t much velocity on my fastball.”

Seriously, you look at the numbers and then read his quotes from that day, and it’s truly astonishing that the Yankees won, but they made the most of their eight hits and seven walks against Glenn Abbott and Tommy Moore, parlayed them into five runs, and when you add it all up, New York was a winner for the 10th time in 11 games, including a three-game sweep of Seattle.

Jose Baez and Steve Braun opened the game with singles off Holtzman, but the lefthander picked off Baez at second base. He then got Carlos Lopez to fly out, but Juan Bernhardt delivered an RBI single and Bill Stein an RBI double before Dan Meyer flied out. Those two runs were all the Mariners would get as they left eight runners stranded over the final eight innings, and the Yankees wiped out four other baserunners by turning four double plays.

Thurman Munson homered in the first, and Paul Blair tied the game with an RBI grounder in the second after Graig Nettles had walked and Roy White doubled. New York then took the lead with two runs in the sixth as Chris Chambliss had an RBI double and White drew a bases-loaded walk.

During their 10-1 streak, the Yankees were hitting .309 as a team and their starting pitchers had earned seven victories, and Lyle had recorded a win and five saves.

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