Sept. 21, 1977 – Red Sox 3, Yankees 2
- Sal Maiorana
- Sep 21, 2017
- 2 min read
BOSTON – Oh, Don Zimmer was loving this.
“I told you guys if we won tonight, it would be a beauty right down to the final day,” the Boston manager said after his team completed a big two-game sweep to tighten the screws on the AL East race. “We are not dead yet, not by a long shot.”
No, they weren’t, and neither was Baltimore. With the Orioles winning two of three against the Blue Jays, they were now just two games behind the Yankees, with Boston drafting 2.5 back.
Billy Martin, who seemed to worry about everything else but the pennant chase, remained unfazed by the unfortunate three days spent in Boston. “Two isn’t bad,” he said of the now slimmer lead. “We’re in a lot better shape than they’re in. Even if we had won tonight, that wouldn’t have ended the race. We’d have to keep winning anyway. I’ve said all along that our pitching will win it for us, and it will.”
The pitching wasn’t bad in this one. Mike Torrez, who had left his start after four innings against the Red Sox last week due to shoulder stiffness, benefited from the extra day off due to the rainout. He pitched all eight innings and gave up only two earned runs on seven hits and two walks. But the Yankee offense didn’t help him as Luis Tiant, Jim Willoughby and Bill Campbell gave up only two runs total.
“Pennant races are all alike - damn hard,” Martin said.
This one was made harder by George Scott. The hulking Boston first baseman delivered what proved to be the winning run with a solo homer in the sixth inning, and he also made two sparkling defensive plays that killed New York scoring chances.
Scott walked and chugged home when Fred Lynn’s deep fly to center hit the wall, then Mickey Rivers’ face. The game was delayed 10 minutes while Rivers’ bleeding was stanched, but he stayed in with his cheekbone swelling. In the fourth, Scott drove a liner to right that skipped off Reggie Jackson’s glove allowing Carlton Fisk to score from second base.
After Lou Piniella, starting at DH again instead of Dave Kingman, homered in the fifth and drilled a RBI single in the sixth, Scott launched a Torrez offering over the wall in right-center to make it 3-2.
Scott then tormented the Yankees with his glove. With Kingman on first after reaching on an error as a pinch-hitter for Dent, Scott made a diving play on a shot down the line by Rivers that might have tied the game. And in the ninth, with Rivers at first, Scott dove to catch a liner by Roy White and touched first to double off Rivers to end the game in dramatic style.
“There is still more baseball to be played,” said Jackson. “We got beat. We didn’t give it away, the Red Sox outplayed us. Now we have to win ourselves and we will have to be more business-like.”
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