Yanks Sizzle Past Cold Dodgers, 12-2

NEW YORK--It was too cold to play baseball here at Yankee Stadium yesterday, but nobody told the Yankees.

The Bronx Bombers unleashed "the missiles of October" to embarrass the Los Angeles Dodgers, 12-2, and move to within one game of baseball's World Championship.

Solid pitching from Yankee hurler Jim Beattie, who notched eight strikeouts on the night, and poor fielding by the Dodgers gave the Yankees their third straight victory here.

As the thermometer hovered around 40, the concession stands ran out of coffee and hot chocolate long before the Yankees ran out of hits. The Yankee nine sent two Dodger pitchers to the showers with 11 hits in the first four innings.

False Start

The Dodgers got off to a good start when second baseman Davey Lopes blooped a single into right field on the third pitch of the game. With one out, Reggie Smith punched a long single to right, scoring the fleet-footed Lopes, who had already stolen second.

You could tell the Yankees meant business when, in the bottom of the first, they quickly loaded the bases. Although they failed to score in that inning, the Yankees soon came back steaming. After a perfectly-executed Dodger hit-and-run tallied a second Los Angeles score, the Yankees went to work.

Shortstop Bucky Dent walked on four straight pitches, and a Mickey Rivers single put men on first and second. Roy White then lashed a single into right scoring Dent, and Thurman Munson blooped a single to center tallying the first pair of his five RBIs for the night.

Lou "Loooooooo" Piniella singled Munson home, and Tommy Lasorda brought in reliever Lance Rautzhan to try to cool off the fire. Rautzhan didn't last long, as the Yankees added another three runs in the fourth inning.

After the Dodgers had brought in their third pitcher of the night, Charlie Hough, the Yankees came back to inflict more punishment, adding three seventh-inning runs. A Munson single that caromedoff the center field wall accounted for two of those scores.

The New Yorkers tacked on an insulting final run in the eighth inning and headed for the plane back to Los Angeles where they will resume their quest for a second consecutive world title tomorrow night.