July 3, 1977 – Yankees 2-6, Tigers 0-10
- Sal Maiorana
- Jul 3, 2017
- 2 min read
NEW YORK – There were two pretty divergent pitching performances by the pinstripers in this doubleheader split with the Tigers.
In the opener, Ron Guidry was simply superb, a complete-game six-hit shutout that featured nine strikeouts and lowered his season ERA to 3.03. In the nightcap, the Tigers fire-bombed the foursome of Ken Holtzman, Ken Clay, Sparky Lyle and Dick Tidrow for 10 runs on 14 hits, Tidrow’s outing particularly gruesome. He gave up five runs on three home runs, four of the runs coming in the ninth after the Yankees had rallied to pull even at 6-6 by scoring twice in the eighth.
“That was the last arm I had,” Billy Martin said of Tidrow, an indication that he had to stick with the struggling righty at the end of a long day. Part of the problem was that Holtzman – a player who probably ranked only ahead of Reggie Jackson on Martin’s enemy list – lasted only two innings due to soreness in his shoulder.
“He threw a lot of curveballs and his arm started bothering him,” said Martin, irritation all over his face, though upon reflection, that was the same look that was always on Martin’s face after a loss.
Still, the Yankees had a chance for the sweep until the late-inning implosion by Tidrow. Holtzman had put them in a 3-0 first-inning hole, but George Zeber’s two-run single in the fourth cut into the deficit. Detroit scored twice in the fifth off Clay and Lyle, but Lou Piniella’s two-run single in the bottom half made it 5-4. And after Tidrow gave up a solo homer to Steve Kemp in the eighth, the Yankees tied it in their half as Fran Healy doubled home one and scored the tying run on Roy White’s single.
However, five Tiger hits off Tidrow in the ninth, including homers by Ron LeFlore and Rusty Staub, decided it.
Guidry was dominant in the opener. The Tigers threatened only once when they had men on second and third with one out, but Guidry induced a strikeout and pop out. That was the only time Detroit put a runner at third, and in only one other inning did it get a man to second.
“He’s been doing it all year for us,” said White, whose RBI double to the gap in left-center – a ball nearly caught by a diving LeFlore - drove in the first run of the game in the eighth, the only one Guidry needed. “He’s been the stopper, I’d have to say. Guys that caught him always said he had a great fastball. Now he’s showing it.”
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