June 7, 1977 – Rangers 7, Yankees 3
- Sal Maiorana
- Jun 7, 2017
- 2 min read
ARLINGTON, Tex. – Mickey Rivers said he never saw the ball. Reggie Jackson saw it, but he just couldn’t get there in time. And so, Willie Horton’s routine fly ball to center field dropped between the two Yankee outfielders, and before Ed Figueroa knew it, five runs were being tacked onto his ledger. He didn’t deserve any of them.
The Yankees were leading 2-1 and the Rangers had runners on first and second with two outs in the bottom of the fourth. Horton lifted a fly that should have been caught for the third out, but Rivers claimed he lost the ball off the bat in the twilight and never found it.
“I didn’t see the ball at all,” said Mick the Quick. “Reggie thought I was saying I had it, but I was hollering I can’t see it. Sometimes it’ll happen like that.”
What happened was a disaster for the Yankees. Both Bert Campaneris and Dave may scampered home to give Texas a 3-2 lead. Then Toby Harrah followed with a two-run homer, Mike Hargrove doubled, and Tom Grieve doubled him home. Just like that, it was 6-2 Texas. And every run was earned, even though it wasn’t. However, because no one touched the ball, no error was given on the mishap in right-center.
“I had a pitcher out there who was pitching strong,” said Martin when asked why he didn’t life Figueroa. “He was just pitching to mistakes. He didn’t lose a fly ball in the sky, did he? If the ball’s caught, he’s out of the inning.”
The Yankees had opened a 2-0 lead in the third when Fran Healy – who played in place of Thurman Munson who celebrated his 30th birthday by nursing an infection in his right hand – singled and trotted home on Bucky Dent’s home run. Bump Willis hit a solo homer off Figueroa in the bottom of the third, and after the five-run uprising, Figueroa was touched for an unearned run in the sixth when Willie Randolph booted a Wills grounder which allowed Juan Beniquez to score from second base.
Back in New York, though no one knew it at the time, the great Tom Seaver pitched his final game as a member of the Mets at Shea Stadium, an 8-0 blanking of the Cincinnati Reds, the team he would be traded to in a little more than a week.
Seaver, who had been embroiled in a squabble with Mets chairman M. Donald Grant, pitched the 42nd shutout of his career, and with 10 strikeouts he raised his total to 2,397, moving past Sandy Koufax and into 13th place on the all-time list. This was the Mets seventh win in the eight games Joe Torre had managed since he replaced Joe Frazier.
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