June 17, 1977 – Red Sox 9, Yankees 4
- Sal Maiorana
- Jun 17, 2017
- 2 min read
BOSTON – On a night when the Red Sox swatted six home runs, it’s hard to call this the calm before the storm, but that’s exactly what the opener of this three-game series at Fenway was, given what was about to happen the next day.
The Red Sox leap-frogged the Yankees in the race for AL East supremacy by bombing Catfish Hunter in the first inning. Among his 29 pitches, four wound up in the seats as Rick Burleson, Fred Lynn, Carlton Fisk, and George Scott all launched solo homers. Thus, for the third time in his last six starts Hunter headed to the showers after an inning or less.
As if that wasn’t ugly enough, the Yankees were the targets of the Fenway faithful as both Lou Piniella and Mickey Rivers had to dodge flying metal objects in the outfield. “Getting beat in a ballgame like we did is one thing, but getting killed or your eye put out is another,” an incensed Billy Martin said. “I’m not going to get my guys killed.”
Rivers, who had played a particularly hostile role in the huge brawl between the teams in 1976, wore a helmet in the field to help protect himself. “Every time I looked up, somebody was throwing something. I saw glass out there, I saw metal. I guess I saw everything.”
The Yankees also saw the Red Sox unleash their tremendous power. Boston was scuffling at 28-24 after a walk-off loss in Kansas City on June 8, but since then, the Red Sox had been the hottest team in baseball. Back in their hitters’ paradise of a park, they reeled off six wins in a row, and after a loss to the White Sox, started the machine rolling again in this game against New York. The long ball was the key, and now they were in first place by a half-game.
“When we hit four in the first inning off Catfish Hunter,” said pitcher Rick Wise, “that was devastating. Everything in baseball snowballs, both the bad and the good. When you get that feeling that you’re hot, that the team’s hot, you start swaggering. Not with cockiness, but with a real confidence.”
The Yankees punched back in the second inning when Willie Randolph, Rivers, and Thurman Munson hit consecutive RBI singles, and in the third, Graig Nettles’ RBI single tied the score at 4-4.
But then the levee broke. The Red Sox scored single runs in the fifth and sixth, and in the seventh, Carl Yastrzemski with a two-run bomb and Fisk with a solo shot went back-to-back off Dick Tidrow to blow it open.
Comments