June 25, 1977 - Yankees 5, Red Sox 1
- Sal Maiorana
- Jun 25, 2017
- 2 min read
NEW YORK – With his agent in town to discuss a contract extension with Yankees general manager Gabe Paul, Mike Torrez delivered one of his best performances since joining the club in early May.
Torrez cooled off the sizzling Red Sox and ended their 10-game streak of having hit at least one home run with a complete game seven-hitter, only one of which went for extra bases.
“I’d like to get it resolved, but if not, they know I’ll be a free agent,” Torrez said of his contract. “It’s not my decision. It’s up to them if they want to keep me.”
As we know, Paul and the agent, Gary Walker, never did come to an agreement and after the 1977 season, Torrez changed sides in baseball’s greatest rivalry and signed with the Red Sox as a free agent.
For now, though, Torrez was wearing pinstripes, and on a beautiful summer afternoon in the Bronx in front of more than 47,000 fans, he was seeking a return to form. He had dropped his previous two starts, and he’d been pulverized in both. Across 10.2 innings he had yielded 21 hits and 13 earned runs against the Royals and Red Sox. So of course, this being baseball, it made perfect sense that Torrez would be the man to end Boston’s home run streak during which it had hit 33, the most in major-league history for a 10-game stretch.
“You’re aware that they’re capable of hitting home runs,” Torrez said of his future Boston teammates. “But I’m also aware that if I pitch the kind of game I’m capable of pitching, I can keep them from hitting home runs.”
George Scott, who was responsible for nine of the 33 home runs giving him a league-leading 21 for the season, said, “We hit some balls that might have gone out of a normal ballpark. But this place was like Death Valley, so if the streak was going to end, it had to happen in this place.”
The Yankees got the early jump on Luis Tiant in the first when Mickey Rivers emerged from an 0-for-16 slump by hitting a leadoff home run, and then tacked on four runs in the fourth. Thurman Munson and Chris Chambliss singled, and then Reggie Jackson fouled out and proceeded to angrily fling his bat and helmet into the dugout, eliciting boos from the big crowd.
The boos were quickly converted to cheers when Roy White singled to score Munson, and Graig Nettles followed with a massive three-run homer to right on Tiant’s next pitch, posing a good bit to watch it fly as the stadium shook with excitement.
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