Yanks Nip Sox for Title, 5-4

When the reckoning hour finally came in this alleyfight of a pennant race--after 162 games and 8 2/3 innings, after the rise and the fall and the blowout and the desperation eight-game win streak by the Red Sox--the only tangible difference between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox was the 90-foot long stretch of land down the third-base line that blocked Rick Burleson's way to homeplate.

That, of course, and New York relief pitcher Rich Gossage's out-dueling of Boston captain Carl Yastrzemski. For when Gossage popped up Yastrzemski with two out in the ninth at Fenway yesterday afternoon, the Yankees had taken the onegame playoff for the American League East crown in dramatic fashion, 5-4.

The clutch relief performance stranded the tying run--Burleson--on third, and it put a sudden, cold close to a pulse-stopping contest that everyone knew would be the last of the mad, emotional 1978 regular season.

After looking like Little Leaguers against sharp ex-Yankee righthander Mike Torrez for the first six innings, the Bronx Bombers stunned the partisan crowd by surging into a 5-2 lead in the seventh and eighth innings on home run blasts by Bucky Dent and Reggie Jackson, sandwiched around Thurman Munson's RBI double.

The Sox scrambled back for one last attempt at salvaging the roller-coaster summer, hitting for two runs in the eighth but stranding runners at first and second base in that frame, and first and third in the ninth.

"It's a shame anyone had to lose," smoke-thrower Gossage said in the clubhouse afterward. "Getting the final two outs was a feeling you just can't put into words. It was the greatest feeling in my whole life."

"I've gambled all my life and have been in a lot of photo finishes, but this is the biggest I've ever lost," Boston manager Don Zimmer--who pulled Torrez two batters two late, reliever Bob Stanley one batter too late (after Jackson's HR), and mysteriously pinch hit Bob Bailey for Jack Brohamer in the seventh inning--said afterward.

The way things developed from the outset, thought, it looked as though the photo finish would have the Red Sox on top. Although both teams entered the contest with 99-63 records, the Bosox had an eight-game winning streak and a rabid home crowd in their favor.

And New York ace Ron Guidry (25-3 after picking up the win), seemed off form in the first three innings, falling behind batters and not assuming his usual dominating control of the game.

Yastrzemski, the aging warrior who perhaps wanted a World Series ring more than any player in the game, cracked a Guidry fastball 20 rows deep in the rightfield grandstand, leading off the second inning; and the home squad had a one-zip lead.

While the left-handed Guidry settled down after that point, Torrez tossed a wicked slider and mixed his pitches well, matching his ex-teammate goose-egg-for-goose-egg on the scoreboard. It looked as if Yaz's shot might stand up.

Torrez struck out Tnurman Munson, the toughest clutch hitter in the game, three times in the first six frames, twice with Mickey Rivers in scoring position.

And in the sixth, the Sox gave their starter the requisite insurance run that any shutout ace must have. Shortstop Rick Burlesonstroked a 1-2 fastball past Yankee third baseman Graig Nettles for a leadoff double, and he came home--following a Jerry Remy sacrifice--on MVP shoo-in Jim Rice's single to center.

Boston's second tally turned out to be no insurance run, however. In the top of the seventh, Torrez lost his stuff visibly as Chris Chambliss and Roy White ripped singles off him, setting the stage for Dent's two-out heroics.

After injuring his ankle on a one-and-one-foul tip, Dent paced around for about a minute and accepted a new bat from Mickey Rivers (he had the wrong one) before stepping back in the batter's box. Torrez hung a watermelon-sized curveball over the plate on the next pitch, and Dent pop-gunned it into the screen, just over the Green Monster.

New York 3, Boston 2: and in the amount of time it takes to say "Joe Dimaggio," the Fenway fans' visions of dancing in the streets that night had been abruptly subdued.

Zimmer yanked Torrez--two batters too late--after the big hurler walked Mickey Rivers, and then reliever Bob Stanley came in with stuff not respectable enough for batting practice.

Munson, given a third chance to knock Rivers in from second (Mickey had stolen easily), ripped a double into left-center on the second pitch offered by Stanley. Lou Pinella lined out to end the inning, but the damage had been done. New York led by two, with two-and-a-half innings to go.

Boston did nothing in the bottom of the seventh (righty Bob Bailey, inexplicably pinch-hitting for lefty Jack Brohamer, struck out looking against Gossage), setting the stage for the eventual game-winning run.

Pressure-pumped Reggie Jackson supplied it, and why not? On Stanley's fourth pitch to Jackson--and the seventh and last of his brief relief stint--the Yankee slugger took a fastball out over the plate and sent it air-mail express to the centerfield bleachers--5-2 now, and climbing.

But lyric Fenway came abuzz in the bottom of the eighth, as Remy ripped a double off "The Goose"; and then Yaz singled; and then Carlton Fisk singled; and then Fred Lynn did too. The gap had closed to 5-4 with just one out, and it seemed as though there might, indeed, be some joy in Mudville tonight.

Butch Hobson and George Scott killed the rally with a pop-up and a swinging third strike, though; and the whole mad season came down to Gossage versus the heart of the Red Sox lineup in the bottom of the ninth.

Burleson and Remy bunched together a one-out walk and a single to put men on first and second, setting the stage for James Edward Rice to stride to the plate.

Gossage held the mighty slugger at bay with his carbon-copy fast balls, forcing a sacrifice fly to right for the second out.

And so it came down to a perfectly written finish, like something out of a Thomas Hardy novel.

The heart and soul of the Boston Red Sox, Carl Yastrzemski, strode into the batter's box against the Yankees' best relief pitcher, Rich Gossage. It was strength against strength, class against class; and the big New Yorker won.

Yastrzemski chose to swing at the Goose's second offering, a tailing, low inside fastball, and the result was a fluffernut popup that fell easily in Graig Nettles' glove for the final out.

After the initial celebration, the Yanks were subdued, almost fatigued, it seemed, in the clubhouse. A few players downed beers as reporters crowded around, but there was no sign of champagne or wild carousing anywhere.

"It feels good to be done," Nettles said between sips of a Budweiser. "It's gotta be easier after this, it's just gotta be."

The Yankees take on the Kansas City Royals in the first of five games for the A.L. pennant tonight. The Red Sox will watch on T.V., having missed the trip to Kansas City by 90 feet.

  ab  r  h  blRivers cf  2  1  1  0Blair cf  1  0  1  0Munson c  5  0  1  1Pin ella rf  4  0  1  0Jackson dh  4  1  1  1Nettles 3b  4  0  0  0Chmbls 1b  4  1  1  0White 1f  3  1  1  0Doyle 2b  2  0  0  0Spencr ph  1  0  0  0Stanly 2b  1  0  0  0Dent ss  4  1  1  3Total  35  5  8  5  ab  r  h  blBurlesn ss  4  1  1  0Remy 2b  4  1  2  0Rice rf  5  0  1  1Yaz lf  5  1  2  2Fisk c  3  1  1  0Lynn cf  4  0  1  1Hobson dh  4  0  1  0Scott 1b  4  0  2  0Brohmr 3b  1  0  0  0Bailey ph  1  0  0  0Duffy 3b  0  0  0  0Evans ph  1  0  0  0Total  36  4  11  4New York  000  000  4  10-5Boston  010  001  0  20-