August 24, 1977 – Yankees 11, Twins 1
- Sal Maiorana
- Aug 24, 2017
- 2 min read
NEW YORK – Catfish Hunter was one of the most beloved of all Yankees. His teammates loved him, the media loved him, and for the most part, the fans loved him. And this is why.
After going the distance to beat the Twins, in typical Catfish style he deadpanned in his North Carolina drawl, “I did three things nobody expected; I won, I went nine innings and I didn’t give up a home run.”
It didn’t start well as Hunter, as he had so often this season, struggled early. Lyman Bostock led off with a triple and quickly scored on a sacrifice fly by Roy Smalley to give the Twins a 1-0 lead before most in the crowd had settled in after a rain shower delayed the start by 30 minutes.
“At first, I was concerned about Catfish,” said Billy Martin. “I didn’t think he had enough velocity and his curve wasn’t good. But as the game went on he got better and better.”
He sure did, as the Twins managed just three other hits – naturally one was from Rod Carew, who was now batting .378 - and they never got another man as far as third base.
Meanwhile, Graig Nettles was able to officially get on board with the fact that the Yankees were in first place. He had said the day before that not until the Yankees had fewer losses than the Red Sox would he consider New York to be in first place. Well, at Fenway Park, the fading Red Sox were swept in a doubleheader by the Rangers. That meant Boston now had 52 losses to New York's 51, and the precarious half-game lead the Yankees started the night with was now a full two games.
In the bottom of the first, sizzling Mickey Rivers (who by game’s end was 22 for his last 50 with 15 RBI) doubled and Reggie Jackson drew a two-out walk, and then the skies opened and the teams scurried to their clubhouses for a 62-minute rain delay. When play resumed, Chris Chambliss tagged Pete Redfern for a three-run homer, and the rout was on.
Before it was over, Nettles hit a two-run single in the fourth, Rivers and Bucky Dent hit back-to-back homers in the sixth for three runs, Roy White homered in the eighth, and Reggie Jackson finished the onslaught with a two-run single later in the eighth.
Eleven runs on 13 hits and four walks for the Yankees, and it came up again post-game about how Martin finally relenting a few weeks ago and putting Jackson in the clean-up was a key turning point for the Yankees. Since moving into that spot full-time, Jackson had driven in 18 runs.
“Sometimes when you change the lineup, things start happening,” Chambliss said. “The day he changed the lineup, we started hitting.”
Lou Piniella, who a few weeks earlier had vocally chastised his teammates for their selfishness, stated the obvious when he said, “Everybody thought we’d play this way all year. The talent is here. Now we are doing it.”
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