July 21, 1977 – Yankees 7-4, Brewers 0-5
- Sal Maiorana
- Jul 21, 2017
- 3 min read
NEW YORK – For 17 shutout innings, the first nine from Catfish Hunter and the next eight from Ed Figueroa, Milwaukee looked helpless at the plate as it managed just 11 total hits in this doubleheader which kicked off the post All-Star break portion of the season.
But then, just one inning away from completing a sweep, things unraveled and in the blink of an eye a sure Yankee victory became an absolutely mortifying loss, arguably one of their worst of the year.
“How do I feel about losing a game in which we were leading 4-0 going into the ninth inning?” a supremely pissed off Billy Martin said to reporters when he finally met with them after conducting a team meeting in the closed-off clubhouse. “Since I don’t knock my players in public, you can’t get me to say anything (except) that it was a tough loss.”
Had he chosen to knock anyone, he could have started with himself. Figueroa had pitched beautifully over eight shutout innings of six-hit ball. Martin could have turned the game over to fresh closer Sparky Lyle, especially with lefty-swinging power hitter Cecil Cooper leading off the ninth. For that matter, any fresh arm on another warm, muggy night in the Bronx. Instead, Martin ran Figueroa back out because that’s what managers did in the 1970s, and it came back to bite him.
Cooper homered, then Sal Bando singled on a pop fly that went off shortstop Fred Stanley’s glove, the start of a lousy inning for The Chicken. Lyle was in the pen and ready, but Martin stubbornly stuck with Figueroa who got Jamie Quirk on a fly ball, but then gave up a single to Dick Davis.
Finally, with two men on and the potential tying run in the batters’ box, Martin brought in Lyle who promptly gave up an RBI single to Ken McMullen. Next, he got Ed Romero to bounce one to short, but Stanley threw the ball away trying for the force at second for an error that allowed the third run to score. Charlie Moore then tied the game with a single as the fans that were left in the park groaned in disgust. To his credit, with runners on second and third, Lyle protected the tie by getting the final two outs.
However, after the Yankees went quietly in the ninth, and with Dick Tidrow on for the 10th, the Brewers won the game when Cooper singled, stole second, and scored on a single by Davis. Adding further insult, in the last of the 10th, Thurman Munson and Chris Chambliss stirred hope with back-to-back singles, but Munson over-ran second base and was tagged out, and Lou Piniella followed with a double play grounder to end it.
All of that certainly rendered the first game somewhat obsolete, which was a shame because Hunter, pitching for the first time since calling out Martin about his handling of the rotation, turned in his best effort of the season, a five-hit shutout. “That was the first time all year no one has warmed up in the bullpen (during a Hunter start),” said Martin. “That’s the best way I can describe how Catfish pitched.”
Hunter got all the help he needed on a three-run homer by Graig Nettles in the second, while Chris Chambliss and Reggie Jackson each had two hits and an RBI.
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