August 5, 1977 – Mariners 5, Yankees 3

SEATTLE – Those Yankee toes that Billy Martin claimed weren’t stubbed the other night in Anaheim, certainly were against the lowly Mariners, as they suffered yet another maddening loss to a sub-standard team.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox were on a major roll. Both teams were traversing the West Coast, and while this loss dropped the Yankees record to a not-so-terrible 4-3, Boston had won all seven of its games and stretched its lead over the third-place Yankees in the AL East to four games.

Afterward, Billy Martin - stressed to the breaking point because his job was still being evaluated on a daily basis - tore into a sports writer with a string of expletives, though he did later apologize. “I’m worried about winning ballgames,” was his explanation for the outburst.

Ed Figueroa had nothing as he was tagged for five runs in just 4.1 innings before giving way to Dick Tidrow who blanked the punch-less Mariners the rest of the way. Two of the runs scored on wild pitches, one from each pitcher, and another came home on a double play grounder so it wasn’t like the Mariners did a whole lot, but they did more than the Yankees.

Dick Pole – how about going through life with that name - and two relievers limited New York to six hits, one a two-run homer by Reggie Jackson, the 300th of his major-league career, the 38th man to reach that plateau.

Not much to say about this game, so here's another flashback to the music of 1977. Here's Billy Joel performing the title track from one of his greatest albums, The Stranger.

The daily baseball report

#BillyMartin #DickPole #ReggieJackson #BillyJoel