July 8, 1977 – Yankees 7, Orioles 5

BALTIMORE – The last time Don Gullett was in Baltimore, the weather was miserably cold and rainy, and the left-hander could not have had a worse night. Not only did he give up five runs on five hits and an unseemly seven walks and took the loss, he slipped on the mound in the fourth inning and had to come out of the game with a sore neck, ankle and shoulder, all of which forced him to miss his next start.

This time, it was an oppressively gross 94 degrees at Memorial Stadium, and while Gullett’s pitching wasn’t really all that much better – four runs allowed on eight hits and six walks – at least he didn’t get hurt, and he wound up with the victory as the Yankee offense teed off on Rudy May.

May had owned the Yankees ever since they included him in the big 10-player deal with Baltimore at the trade deadline in 1976. Since then he’d gone 5-0 with an ERA of 1.88 in five starts against New York, but his mastery ended in a soupy-aired four-inning shellacking as the Yankees scored five times on eight hits off him including a two-run homer by Thurman Munson and a two-run double by Graig Nettles.

Munson later tacked on a two-run single against Dennis Martinez that gave New York a 6-2 cushion in the fifth and proved to be just enough to secure the victory as Orioles phenom Eddie Murray crashed a three-run homer on Gullett’s final pitch of the game to make the Yankees sweat at 6-5.

Munson’s two hits lifted his batting average against the Orioles this season to .485 with three homers and 12 RBI. It also gave him 64 RBI, second-most in the AL to Minnesota’s Larry Hisle, though numbers really never mattered to Munson.

He was all about winning, and being a good teammate, and after the game he said he never looked past himself whenever analyzing a Yankee win or loss.

“You know, the biggest thing with all the trouble we’ve had here this year - and we’ve had our share-this year - it’s yourself,” Munson said. “You have to examine yourself. I’m always marking myself.”

In winning their fourth game in a row and 12th in their last 16, the Yankees also snapped streaking Baltimore’s seven-game winning streak.

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