RIVERS EXTENDS STREAK TO 24 GAMES IN YANKS WIN
Twins Comeback Attempt Falls Short
BLOOMINGTON,Minn., Aug. 13 (AP) - Mickey Rivers had three hits, extending his
hitting streak to a major league best 24 games, as the New York Yankees held off
the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium. Rivers snapped a tie
with Kansas City's George Brett, who hit safely in 23 consecutive games from May
11 through June 2. Rivers' streak began on July 21.
The Twins took the early lead when Steve Brye and Steve Braun opened the bottom
of the first with back-to-back singles off Yankees starter Ed Figueroa and Brye
scored on Rod Carew's sacrifice fly.
New York countered with a pair of runs in the second inning. Chris
Chambliss and Carlos May duplicated Brye and Braun, leaving the Yankees with
runners on first and third with no outs. Graig Nettles lifted a sacrifice
fly to right, scoring Chambliss with May advancing to second on the throw to the
plate. Minnesota starter Eddie Bane fell behind Willie Randolph and
eventually walked him intentionally. Fred Stanley struck out but Rivers
lined a base hit to right, scoring May to give the Yankees a 2-1 advantage.
Figueroa and Bane both found their stride in the middle innings. After
surrendering a one-out single to Lyman Bostock in the third, Figueroa retired 12
of the next 13 batters he faced--a harmless two-out walk to Carew in the fifth
was the only blemish. Bane was in and out of trouble, but kept the Yankees
off the scoreboard following the second inning rally until he was replaced by
Tom Johnson to begin the seventh.
The Yankees appeared to seize firm control of the game in the eighth.
Nettles led off the inning with his 23rd home run of the season, putting New
York ahead 3-1. After Randolph and Stanley were retired, Rivers banged out
his third hit of the game when he reached base on an infield single. Roy
White's base hit to left-center chased Rivers to third. Before making his
first pitch to Thurman Munson, Johnson was called for a balk, scoring Rivers
with the Yankees' fourth run of the game.
The balk would prove extremely costly because the Twins rallied in the bottom of
the eighth. Figueroa retired Bostock and Butch Wynegar on routine fly
balls but Mike Cubbage doubled to the left-center field gap to keep the inning
alive and Roy Smalley bounced a single through the middle, scoring Cubbage to
make the score 4-2. When Figueroa hit Dan Ford with a 1-1 curve ball that
had no break on it at all, New York manager Billy Martin had seen enough and
replaced Figueroa with Dick Tidrow to face Larry Hisle, who was pinch hitting
for Bob Randall. Tidrow worked ahead 0-2 but then committed a mortal sin
by leaving a pitch in the middle of the strike zone that Hisle lined sharply to
right field for a single, loading the bases. Tidrow missed with a 3-2
fastball to Brye, walking the Minnesota left fielder to force in a run. It
was now 4-3 and the potential go-ahead run was in scoring position. But
Tidrow escaped further difficulty by retiring Braun on a first pitch fly ball to
end the inning.
After Johnson retired the Yankees in order in top of the ninth Tidrow--seemingly
in much better command--needed only nine pitches to work through the heart of
the Twins' order, retiring Carew, Bostock and Wynegar in order to end the
game. It was the third straight victory for New York.
During the hitting streak, Rivers has completely turned around his season.
He entered play on July 21 hitting .251. During the streak he has batted
.360, increasing his season batting average to .276, with 10 multi-hit games, 10
doubles, three triples, a home run, 16 RBIs and 22 runs scored. The
Yankees are 18-6 during the streak and have gone from a one-game lead to a
six-game advantage in the American League East.
8/13/1976, NYA76-Min76, Metropolitan Stadium 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1976 Yankees 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 4 12 0 11 0 1976 Twins 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 3 9 1 11 0 Yankees AB R H BI AVG Twins AB R H BI AVG Rivers cf 5 1 3 1 .276 Brye lf 4 1 1 1 .305 White,R lf 5 0 1 0 .283 Terrell 2b 0 0 0 0 .234 Munson c 5 0 0 0 .303 Braun dh 4 0 2 0 .283 Piniella rf 5 0 3 0 .301 Carew 1b 3 0 0 1 .310 Chambliss 1b 4 1 2 0 .312 Bostock cf 5 0 1 0 .329 May,C dh 5 1 1 0 .210 Wynegar c 5 0 1 0 .296 Nettles 3b 3 1 1 2 .262 Cubbage 3b 3 1 1 0 .259 Randolph 2b 3 0 0 0 .301 Smalley ss 4 1 1 1 .272 Stanley,F ss 4 0 1 0 .324 Ford rf 3 0 0 0 .242 39 4 12 3 Randall,B 2b 3 0 1 0 .294 Hisle ph 1 0 1 0 .248 35 3 9 3 Yankees INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Figueroa W 14-7 7.2 8 3 3 3 5 117 72 4.05 Tidrow S 8 1.1 1 0 0 1 0 19 12 3.36 9.0 9 3 3 4 5 136 84 Twins INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Bane L 3-5 6.0 8 2 2 2 2 96 63 4.97 Johnson,To 3.0 4 2 2 0 1 48 31 1.59 9.0 12 4 4 2 3 144 94 Min: Hisle batted for Randall,B in the 8th Terrell inserted at 2b in the 9th Hisle moved to lf in the 9th E-Smalley. 2B-Piniella(15), Cubbage(15). HR-Nettles(24). RBI-Rivers(43), Nettles 2(73), Brye(13), Carew(55), Smalley(37). K-May,C, Randolph, Stanley,F, Brye, Braun, Carew, Smalley, Ford. BB-Chambliss, Randolph, Brye, Braun, Carew, Cubbage. SF-Nettles, Carew. HBP-Ford. HB-Figueroa. BALK-Johnson,To. GWRBI: Rivers Temperature: 68, Sky: cloudy, Wind: out to center at 12 MPH. Attendance: 17,803 Game Time: 2:29