September 9, 1978: Despite the New York Yankees having closed to within 2 games of the Boston Red Sox with 15-3 and 13-2 wins, Sox fans weren't shaken up yet. They were up for this Saturday NBC Game of the Week. They were excited about the pitching matchup between the two leading winners in the American League that season, Ron Guidry (who came into the game with a record of 20-2) and Dennis Eckersley (16-6). As Nathan Salant put it in his book This Date In New York Yankees History:
The talk in Boston was that all the Sox had to do was win the next two, and the Yankees would have wasted all those runs and hits for nothing. Besides, today the "Eck" was on the mound, 3-0 against the Yankees in 1978. Sure, Guidry was tough, but he was a lefthander about to get his first start in Fenway, with that nice, close leftfield wall. And, the Sox were due to wake up with the bats, weren't they?
Well, for the 1st 3 innings, the game lived up to its billing: No runs. Then came the top of the 4th, and that might have been the decisive inning of the entire season, the one that showed the Sox and their fans that the 1st 2 games of the series were no fluke, and that there was no longer any reason for the Yankees to be afraid of the Sox, not even of their ace.
Thurman Munson led off with a single. Then Reggie Jackson flew to left, and Carl Yastrzemski threw back to the infield, and doubled Munson off. It seemed as though the threat was over.
It wasn't. Chris Chambliss doubled. With 1st base open and 2 outs, Sox manager Don Zimmer ordered that Graig Nettles be intentionally walked. As Salant put it, "That made no sense, because the next batter was the Red Sox killer himself, Lou Piniella." Sweet Lou had already proven himself a big clutch hitter in the previous season, against the Sox in September, the Kansas City Royals in the American League Championship Series, and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.
Now, he delivered the sequel. He took advantage of that big space in Fenway's right field, and of Jim Rice's lead feet and his inexperience out there. (Rice was the usual left fielder, while the aging Yaz and George Scott had platooned between 1st base and designated hitter. But, here, he was subbing for the injured Dwight Evans). Piniella smacked one that Rice could only hold to a double, scoring Chambliss.
With 1st base again open, Roy White was intentionally walked. As Salant put it, "A good move because White is second to Piniella as a Sox-smasher." And because the next man up was the Yankees' good-fielding, but barely-slap-hitting shortstop, Russell Earl "Bucky" Dent. Surely, he wouldn't cause trouble at Fenway Park. Little did they know...
Dent singled to left, scoring Nettles and Piniella, making it 3-0 New York. Given the emotional impact that this game had, this might have been the Yankees' most important hit of the season, never mind Dent's most important RBI hit of the season at Fenway Park. And Dent got to 2nd on an error. Mickey Rivers singled home White and Dent. 5-0. With Willie Randolph up, Eckersley threw a wild pitch that advanced the runners. Randolph drew a walk. The Yankees had batted around. Munson singled Rivers home.
Finally, Zimmer took Eckersley out of the game. One of the best starters in baseball at the time -- he had gone 14-13, including a no-hitter, for an awful Cleveland Indians team the year before, but had to be traded, for reasons that I won't get into here -- he had already developed a drinking problem that would nearly ruin him. Eventually, he would be turned into one of the best relief pitchers ever, finishing a Hall of Fame career with 197 wins and 390 saves. But now, he had to be removed.
Zimmer brought the lefthanded Tom Burgmeier in, to face the lefty Reggie, and, if he got on base, the lefty Chambliss. A good reliever who would make the All-Star Team in 1980, here he was betrayed by the injury to catcher Carlton Fisk, who allowed a passed ball that scored Randolph. That might have rattled him, because he walked Reggie. But he settled down, and got Chambliss to fly to center.
This inning was the Red Sox' season in a nutshell: Seemingly getting into and out of trouble, and then, after there were already 2 outs, came 7 runs, on 5 hits, 3 walks (not counting the last, to Reggie), an error, a wild pitch, and a passed ball.
Meanwhile, Guidry cruised, pitching as well as he had all year. He allowed 2 singles in the 1st 3 at-bats of the game, to Rick Burleson and Rice, and then allowed no hits and just 4 walks the rest of the way.
Yankees 7, Red Sox 0. The Yankees were now only 1 game back.
Reggie Jackson and Carl Yastrzemski both went 0-for-4, although Reggie did draw a walk.
This game inspired 2 legendary quotes, for both of which I was unable to find a source. Supposedly, a sportswriter wrote, "This was the first time that a first-place team had been eliminated from a pennant race."
And, supposedly, someone stood up in a Boston bar, and said, "They killed our grandfathers, they killed our fathers, and now, the sons of bitches are coming for us." Meaning the Yankees had taken the heart of the 1910s Red Sox champions for their own 1920s champions, they'd broken New England hearts in the 1949 AL Pennant race, and now, it was their own generation's turn.
And, supposedly, someone stood up in a Boston bar, and said, "They killed our grandfathers, they killed our fathers, and now, the sons of bitches are coming for us." Meaning the Yankees had taken the heart of the 1910s Red Sox champions for their own 1920s champions, they'd broken New England hearts in the 1949 AL Pennant race, and now, it was their own generation's turn.
*
September 9, 1978 was a Saturday. These other games were played in Major League Baseball that day:
* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-1 at Shea Stadium. Kevin Kobel went the distance for the win. The Pirates' lone run came on a solo home run by Willie Stargell.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Montreal Expos, 6-3 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Garry Maddox and Richie Hebner hit home runs. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-3, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-4 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-0 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Scott McGregor pitched a 3-hit shutout. Eddie Murray and Ken Singleton hit home runs.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-3 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Johnny Bench went 1-for-3 with 2 RBIs.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.
* The Seattle Mariners beat the Chicago White Sox, 9-6 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-0 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.
* The Houston Astros beat the San Diego Padres, 10-4 at the Astrodome in Houston. Dave Winfield went 2-for-4 with an RBI.
* The California Angels swept a doubleheader from the Kansas City Royals at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim), 3-2 and 4-2. George Brett went 2-for-8 with an RBI over the 2 games.
* And the Oakland Athletics and the Texas Rangers were rained out at the Oakland Coliseum. It would be made up as part of a doubleheader the next day.
Being a Saturday, there were college football games played. Among them:
* Number 3 Penn State beat Rutgers, 26-10 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania.
* Number 4 Oklahoma beat Stanford, 35-29 at the old Stanford Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto, California.
* Missouri upset Number 5 Notre Dame, 3-0 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.
* Number 9 USC beat Texas Tech, 17-9 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
* Number 10 Nebraska beat the University of California, 36-26 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.
* Number 12 UCLA beat Number 11 Washington, 10-7 at Husky Stadium in Seattle.
* The University of Illinois and their arch-rivals, Northwestern University, played to a 0-0 tie at a rain-soaked Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois.
* In another arch-rivalry game, Southern Methodist beat Texas Christian, 45-14 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
* Number 1 Alabama and Number 2 Arkansas did not play that week.
Also, in English soccer, Arsenal lost to defending Football League Champions Nottingham Forest, 2-1 at the City Ground in Nottingham.
No comments:
Post a Comment