Sept. 26, 1977 – Yankees 4, Indians 2

NEW YORK – Mike Torrez’s shoulder bothered him again, but he gave the Yankees six decent innings before giving way to rubber-armed Sparky Lyle who pitched the final three, his 26th save securing Torrez’s 17th victory.

Boston was rained out, Baltimore was idle, so the Yankees picked up a half-game on each and reduced their magic number to three, and with the weakling Indians in town for three more nights, there now seemed little doubt the Yankees were going to win the AL East for the second season in a row.

“It’s an aggravating thing,” Torrez said of his shoulder. “It’s just a little stiffness, but it’s so close to the end of the season you don’t want to hurt anything; you want to be safe. I wasn’t throwing anything, I was getting by with nothing. I was just battling and trying to keep them from scoring. Thank God for Sparky.”

Lousy weather kept the crowd down to 12,356, and they didn’t see a whole lot. Cleveland scored once in the first inning, but in the bottom half, the Yankees scratched out two very ugly runs thanks to two walks, a hit batter, a single, and an error.

In the fourth, Bucky Dent singled, stole second, and scored on Thurman Munson’s single, and Paul Blair tacked on a RBI single in the seventh to complete the scoring.

Here's another look back at the music of 1977, Rod Stewart singing Tonight's the Night.

The daily baseball report

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