August 22, 1977 – White Sox 5, Yankees 3
- Sal Maiorana
- Aug 22, 2017
- 2 min read
CHICAGO – First it was Lou Piniella in the fifth inning with a solo home run, then Mickey Rivers hit one in the sixth, and Chris Chambliss hit one in the seventh. Slowly, methodically, the Yankees appeared to be on their way to their ninth straight victory at raucous Comiskey Park.
Instead, there was a two-inning meltdown during which Chicago scored five times, two of the runs unearned, and New York missed out on a chance to move into first place in the AL East for the first time since July 9 as the Red Sox lost yet again, this time to Minnesota.
The trouble began when ex-Yankee Oscar Gamble led off the bottom of the seventh against Ed Figueroa with a bloop double. Two outs later, Gamble was joined on the base paths by Chet Lemon who drew a walk, and that brought pinch-hitter Lamar Johnson to the plate. Figueroa got ahead in the count 0-2, but made a mistake and Johnson lashed it to right-field for a two-run double.
Then in the eighth, some shoddy fielding cost the Yankees the game. With one out, Alan Bannister singled, and Richie Zisk followed with a single that turned into a disaster. Mickey Rivers, playing deep for the power hitter, came charging in to field the ball and it skipped past him. Bannister came all the way around to score when Thurman Munson bobbled the relay throw home from Willie Randolph for an error.
“I saw (third-base coach Bobby Knoop) waving his arms, waving, waving,” Bannister said, “so I came on. To tell you the truth, I was surprised to see a play at the plate. I just got the black border, but if I didn’t, I wouldn’t tell you.”
That ended Figueroa’s night, and then the normally reliable Sparky Lyle coughed up the lead, and the game. Gamble greeted him with a RBI single that put the White Sox ahead, and Gamble wound up on third when Rivers’ throw hit Zisk. Rivers was given an error, which was appropriate because on the ball he whiffed on, he wasn’t charged with an error. Gamble scored on a fielders’ choice grounder by Jim Spencer, and Chicago starter Francisco Barrios came back out for the ninth to complete his 12th victory in 16 decisions.
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