June 26, 1977 – Yankees 5, Red Sox 4
- Sal Maiorana
- Jun 26, 2017
- 3 min read
NEW YORK – What comes around goes around. A pretty lame cliché, but after getting embarrassed during a three-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox a week earlier, the Yankees turned the tables and completed their own three-game sweep of Boston at Yankee Stadium.
True, the games weren’t as lopsided as the ones at Fenway where the Red Sox bludgeoned the Yankees with 16 home runs over three miserable days, but New York’s three victories – two coming in thrilling walk-off finish – counted just the same, and they enabled Billy Martin’s crew to pull back within two games of the first-place men of Don Zimmer.
“I never thought we were out of it,” Martin said of the AL East race, which, considering it was late June, would have been pretty ridiculous if he indeed thought they were. “Baseball’s no different than life. You have your highs and you have your lows. You just hope people stick with you in the lows, because the highs are going to come.”
When the Red Sox pulled into town like a band of marauders, they had won 16 of their last 18 games and were five up on the Yankees, who seemed to be dropping faster than an anchor. In the span of three days, the Red Sox were reminded that they were not infallible.
“Baseball’s not as easy as we were making it,” Zimmer said. “We couldn’t continue to do what we were doing. Well, we don’t have to worry about them until September.”
That’s right; there would be no games between these teams for the next two and a half months. In 1977, AL East teams played each other 15 times, four fewer than in 2017. Thus, the bitter enemies had already completed two-thirds of their seasonal war and it was split dead even at 5-5. All that was left was a three-game set in New York Sept. 13-15, and a two-game set in Boston Sept 19-20.
There was high drama in the ninth inning of this one. After giving up two hits, a walk, a wild pitch, and a run in a shaky first inning, Don Gullett settled in and pitched beautifully for the next seven innings, yet that wasn’t enough for Martin. Rather than turn to closer Sparky Lyle – who hadn’t pitched the day before - to close the game with a 4-1 lead, Martin sent Gullett back to the bump, and the Red Sox went to work.
Carlton Fisk walked, George Scott doubled, and after getting Butch Hobson to line back to him for the first out, Gullett gave up a two-run single to Tommy Helms that made it 4-3. Still, even after a visit to the mound, Martin left the tiring Gullett in and Steve Dillard singled. Pinch-runner Rick Miller went to third, Dillard advanced to second on the throw, and the crowd of more than 55,000 was up in arms over the turn of events.
Finally, Martin went to the bullpen and it was Dick Tidrow to face righty-swinging Rick Burleson. That didn’t work as Burleson put the ball in play with a high chopper to third and Miller scored the tying run, costing Gullett the chance for a much-deserved win. Only then did Martin turn to Lyle, and he retired lefty-swinging Fred Lynn on a fly to center to preserve the tie.
To their credit, the Yankees shook off their manager’s poor work by winning the game in the bottom half, rallying for the second time in three games against the Red Sox rich free agent closer, Bill Campbell. Roy White drew a one-out walk, Thurman Munson singled him to third, and Chris Chambliss was walked intentionally so that Campbell could face weak-hitting Paul Blair, who had come in as a defensive replacement for Reggie Jackson in the eighth. It was the right call by Zimmer, until Blair blew it up with a chopper that bounced over Hobson’s head at third, White scoring as the stadium exploded.
“We needed those games,” Chambliss said. “The key to it was pitching. Our pitchers threw three great games this weekend.”
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