August 17, 1977 – Yankees 7, Tigers 5
- Sal Maiorana
- Aug 17, 2017
- 2 min read
DETROIT – When he was informed that the scorching Red Sox had finally lost, Billy Martin looked up and said, “Boston lost their game? Gee, that’s a shame.”
And then he smiled, something he hadn’t been doing minutes earlier when he was watching the Yankees come oh-so-close to blowing a huge lead and losing to the Tigers.
“It looked like last night all over again,” said Martin, breathing a sigh of relief after the Yankees hung on for dear life to win their ninth game in their last 10, a victory that finally enabled them to gain a little ground on their arch rivals.
Before the first inning had been completed at Tiger Stadium, the Yankees had hit for a team cycle, they had knocked Detroit starter Fernando Arroyo out of the game, and it looked like it was going to be an easy night.
Mickey Rivers homered on Arroyo’s first pitch of the game, Roy White tripled, Thurman Munson doubled, and after Reggie Jackson whiffed, Chris Chambliss tripled to make it 3-0. That was it for Arroyo as ex-Yankee manager Ralph Houk called for John Hiller to enter the fray. He got Graig Nettles to ground out, but then walked Carlos May and gave up an RBI single to Willie Randolph before Bucky Dent popped out.
By the fourth inning, after RBI hits by Randolph, Rivers, and Nettles, it was 7-1 and it looked like Ed Figueroa was home free. Instead, the Tigers threw a scare into the Yankees when they entered the bottom of the ninth down 7-2, then put up three runs and hand lefty power-hitting Ben Oglivie at the plate as the potential tying run with two outs before Sparky Lyle struck him out.
Figueroa hadn’t exactly cruised along as he was roughed up for 12 hits and two runs in facing a whopping 40 batters before Martin pulled the plug after he gave up two runs on three hits and a walk in the ninth. You wonder how much more success Martin might have had as a manager, and how many fewer times he might have been fired, had he only known how to properly manage a pitching staff.
Lyle took over with two lefties, Jason Thompson and Ogilvie, due up, and he received a piece of advice from his third baseman, Graig Nettles.
“Nettles said ‘Try throwing the ball low,’” Lyle recounted. “I said ‘I have been trying to do that.’”
Thompson grounded out to Willie Randolph as the Tigers’ fifth run scored, but with Steve Kemp standing on third, Lyle punched out Ogilvie. “Maybe they ought to change the rules and call the games after eight innings,” Nettles quipped in the suddenly happy, energetic Yankee clubhouse.
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