June 22, 1977 – Yankees 12, Tigers 11
- Sal Maiorana
- Jun 22, 2017
- 3 min read
DETROIT – As the throng of reporters that followed the Yankees from town to town waited in the visiting manager’s office, Billy Martin came in and said playfully, “Out of my way before I pass out.” Then he asked someone to get him a beer. The man needed one.
The Yankees ended their five-game losing streak with a wild victory that saw them blow a 7-2 lead by allowing eight runs in the sixth and seventh innings, rally with a five-spot in the eighth to regain the lead, and then escape a major jam in the ninth. When Detroit’s Phil Mankowski popped up to Bucky Dent with the bases loaded and Tiger Stadium aflame, you could feel the collective sigh from the Yankee side.
“It was unbelievable,” said Reggie Jackson, who played a key role in the decisive eighth-inning comeback with a two-run double that broke a 10-10 tie. “I hope it’s a lift for us.”
Martin, beer in hand, agreed with his favorite foil. “That might turn us around. That’s what we needed, to battle back and win one.”
It was quite a battle indeed, and it put the Yankees back in the right frame of mind just in time with the Red Sox coming to Yankee Stadium for another big three-game series, one they hoped they’d be able to exact a little revenge in as a response to what happened in Boston the previous weekend.
The Yankees jumped on Tigers starter Dave Roberts for three runs in the first, the big hit a two-run triple by Thurman Munson who then scored on a groundout by Jackson. Two more runs were plated in the fourth when Jackson doubled and scored on a Lou Piniella single, and the count rose to 5-1 when Piniella scored on Paul Blair’s double play grounder.
Newly-acquired Cliff Johnson, playing first base for the resting Chris Chambliss, ripped a two-run homer in the fifth to make it 7-2 and it looked like the Yankees would cruise home. Not so fast. The Tigers tied it in the sixth as Steve Kemp and Mankowski each hit two-run homers, the first off Ken Holtzman, the second off the suddenly gopher-ball prone Dick Tidrow. And then in the seventh, John Wockenfuss hit a two-run homer to give Detroit a 10-7 lead.
Somehow undaunted, the Yankees got off the deck in the eighth. Graig Nettles hit a two-out, three-run homer to tie it, his first long ball in nearly three weeks, and after Munson and pinch-hitting Chambliss singled, Jackson sliced a double to left to chase home both men to make it 12-10.
Still, the drama continued in the ninth as Sparky Lyle retired the first two men, then gave up a pair of singles and a walk which sent Martin to the mound to pull his closer, who’d already faced 12 batters. Ken Clay was the choice, and he saved the game. One run scored when Willie Randolph booted a Chuck Scrivener grounder, but then Clay got Mankowski to pop out as the Tigers left the bases loaded.
One man unfazed by all the action was Yankee coach Yogi Berra. “What the hell, it’s as good as winning 13-0,” Berra deadpanned. “We used to do it all the time with the Mets.”
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