August 18, 1977 – Yankees 5, Tigers 4

DETROIT – Billy Martin’s stomach couldn’t take much more of this. For the third game in a row, the Yankees had to sweat out a down-to-the-wire victory, but the good news is that once again, it ended in a victory.

Sparky Lyle allowed a run to score in the eighth after he replaced Catfish Hunter which cut New York’s lead to 5-4, and then he gave up a leadoff single to Bob Adams in the bottom of the ninth as the Tiger Stadium crowd came to life. But he quickly muted Motown when he induced speedy Ron LeFlore to ground into a double play, and struck out Tito Fuentes to end it.

When Martin came into the clubhouse, he saw Fred “Chicken” Stanley chowing down at the buffet table and said incredulously, “How the hell can you eat, Chicken? If I ate now it’d come right back up.”

It had been an energetic night for Martin. For seven-plus innings he lived and died with Catfish Hunter who, at this point in his career, could implode at any moment meaning every pitch was an adventure. “He pitched a good game,” Martin said. “He made a couple mistakes and they hit them both (an RBI double by Rusty Staub and a two-run homer by Jason Thompson in the sixth). I liked his velocity, and the fact that he got out of the first inning.”

Then Martin squirmed through the final two innings when the Tigers had plenty of traffic on the bases. “Sparky did a super job tonight,” Martin said of his ace reliever.

And, Martin also had a spirited face-to-face screaming match with umpire Bill Deegan over what Martin felt was an inconsistent strike zone. “No comment,” said Martin on that topic.

Just another night in Yankee land.

The Yankees broke a scoreless tie in the fifth when three straight singles, the last by Bucky Dent, and a groundout by Mickey Rivers produced two runs. After the Tigers went ahead in the sixth, the Yankee regained the lead in the seventh. Graig Nettles and Willie Randolph opened with singles and were bunted along by Dent. Rivers then came through with a two-run single, and Lou Piniella tacked on an RBI single which proved to be the winning run after the Tigers scratched out a run in in the eighth.

“Mickey came through, Randolph made some good plays and Dent got a big hit,” said Martin. “We’re taking turns. That’s how you go all the way.”

The daily baseball report

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