Sept. 18, 1977 – Yankees 6, Tigers 5

DETROIT – The Yankees were having a good ol’ time in the visiting dugout at Tiger Stadium, and why not? They were ahead 6-0 going to the bottom of the ninth, about to finish off a sweep that would leave them 3.5 games ahead of Baltimore and 4.5 up on Boston with two weeks left in the season.

“You can’t get gay on the field, you have to wait until you get in the clubhouse to be gay,” Billy Martin said, using a word that means “happy” which rarely, if ever, gets verbalized that way today.

Tigers manager Ralph Houk noticed this, too, and after his team wiped those smiles off the Yankees’ faces and put the fear of God into them with a five-run rally that very nearly dealt New York an awful loss, Houk said, “They weren’t too gay then. They had been having a great time over there until the ninth. They were all laughing and kidding around.”

Hey, lesson learned for the Yankees. It’s never over until all 27 outs are recorded, and man, did it take some work to get those last three.

All was well almost the entire way as newcomer Dave Kingman crushed his second two-run homer in as many games in the second inning, Reggie Jackson hit a three-run bomb in the third, and Bucky Dent delivered a sacrifice fly in the fourth that gave Ron Guidry six runs to work with.

For his part, Guidry was terrific, and it looked like he’d only need one of those runs to register his 15th victory. Through eight uneventful innings he allowed just four hits, two walks and no runs. But then the Yankee defense came unglued in the ninth, and the Tigers pounced.

Rusty Staub led off with a single that probably should have been ruled an error on second baseman Willie Randolph. “I think Willie should’ve caught the ball Staub hit,” Guidry said. “And the ball to Bucky was a double play ball.”

Yes, Jason Thompson’s grounder to Dent was booted, and rather than two outs, it was first and second, no outs. Next up was Lance Parrish, and his grounder should have been the third out, end of game. Instead, Cliff Johnson booted that and Staub was able to score. “Three weak ground balls and all three got on,” said Guidry. “You’ve got to put a stop to one of those.”

Mickey Stanley then lashed a two-run double to left, and two groundouts eventually got him home. The lead was down to 6-4, and all Guidry needed was one more out, and he couldn’t get it. John Wockenfuss singled, and Ron LeFlore drove him home with a triple, so Martin brought in Sparky Lyle to face Tito Fuentes, and he was able to get the elusive 27th out on a grounder to Dent to end the game.

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