History of the World Series – 1978
A two-game deficit? No problem.
Well, that’s the way it turned out. But considering the way the Los Angeles Dodgers played in Games 1 and 2 of the 1978 Series, the Yankees must have had some misgivings about their ability to come back this time.
In the Series opener at Dodger Stadium, Davey Lopes drove in five runs with a pair of homers as Los Angeles thumped the Yankees, 11-5. Dusty Baker also homered for the Dodgers, who raked 20-game winner Ed Figueroa and three relievers for 15 hits. Dodgers lefthander Tommy John pitched shutout ball for six innings in notching the first Series victory of his career. John’s chief tormentor was Reggie Jackson, who picked up where he had left off the previous October by rapping two singles and a home run.
Ron Cey and rookie pitcher Bob Welch foiled the New Yorkers in Los Angeles’ 4-3 triumph in Game 2. Cey knocked in all of the Dodgers’ runs with a single in the fourth inning and a three-run homer in the sixth, while Welch came on in relief in the ninth and got his club out of a two-on, one-out jam. With New York trailing by one run and the Yanks’ Bucky Dent on second base and Paul Blair on first, Welch retired Thurman Munson on a liner to right fielder Reggie Smith. Up next was Jackson. It was a classic case of the out-to-prove-himself kid against the proven veteran, the potential star against the bigger-than-life superstar. Welch, 21, had been summoned from the minor leagues in June; Jackson, 32, had just completed his 11th full season in the big leagues, a year in which he boosted his homer total to 340.
In a fiercely contested battle of strength against strength (Welch’s fastball against Jackson’s ability to hit the fastball), the count went to 3-2 as the crowd roared with every pitch. Reggie, who had fouled off three two-strike pitches en route to the full count, then swung mightily — and missed.
Game 3 at Yankee Stadium matched 15-game winner Don Sutton of the Dodgers against New York’s Ron Guidry, who had turned in a dazzling 25-3 record in 1978 and embellished the mark with a 1.74 earned-run average and nine shutouts. Guidry labored in this game, allowing seven walks and eight hits. But the Yankees clipped Sutton for five runs and nine hits in 6 1/3 innings, with Roy White delivering a first-inning homer and scoring two runs to spark the Yanks’ offense. The big story for the New Yorkers, though, was third baseman Graig Nettles, whose sensational fielding thwarted Los Angeles time and again.
With two out and one on in the third inning, Nettles foiled the Dodgers by throwing out Smith after making a diving, backhanded stop of his hard smash down the third-base line. In the fifth, with Los Angeles baserunners on first and second and two out, he knocked down another drive by Smith over the bag and held the Dodger power hitter to an infield single. On the next play, with the bases loaded, he speared a hard grounder by Steve Garvey and forced Smith at second. And in the sixth, he sank the Dodgers by making another brilliant stop on a two-out, bases-loaded shot down the line (this ball was hit by Lopes), again getting a force at second. Los Angeles couldn’t cope with Nettles’ wizardry afield and fell, 5-1.
Jackson exhibited more of his October magic in Game 4, with his bat and his hip.
With Los Angeles’ John holding a 3-0 lead on the strength of Smith’s fifth-inning homer, the Yankees had one out in the sixth when White singled, Munson walked and Jackson stroked a run-scoring base hit. Lou Piniella then hit a sinking liner to the left of Dodgers shortstop Bill Russell. The ball hit off Russell’s glove and fell to the ground. Munson, who had hustled back to second when it appeared the ball would be caught, took off for third. Russell ignored Munson, instead stepping on second to force Jackson, and then throwing to first in an attempt to complete an inning-ending double play. Jackson, though, froze in the basepath and, with Russell’s throw in flight, turned toward first baseman Garvey and his right hip swiveled toward the ball. The ball struck Reggie and bounced into short right field, with Munson scoring the Yanks’ second run. The Dodgers argued vehemently that Jackson had intentionally interfered with the ball and that Piniella should be ruled out. The umpires stood by their call.
New York tied the score in the eighth when Blair singled, advanced to second on White’s sacrifice and scooted home on Munson’s double. After free-agent acquisition Goose Gossage (27 saves and a 2.01 ERA in his first season with the Yanks) retired Los Angeles in order in the top of the 10th, the Yankees struck for the game-winning run in the last half of the inning. With two out and White on first with a walk, Jackson gained a measure of revenge against Dodgers reliever Welch by rapping a single, and Piniella ended matters with another base hit. The 4-3 New York triumph squared the Series at two games apiece.
Bob Lemon, who had succeeded Billy Martin as Yankees manager in July, started rookie Jim Beattie in Game 5 and the righthander responded with the first complete-game performance of his big-league career. Yankee bats stole the show, however, as New York erupted for 18 hits and cruised to a 12-2 victory. Munson drove in five runs and was one of four Yankees to collect three hits (Dent, Mickey Rivers and Brian Doyle were the others).
Dent and Doyle repeated their three-hit salvos in Game 6 as New York wrapped up its 22nd championship. Shortstop Dent, whose three-run homer had proven to be the decisive blow in the Yanks’ Eastern Division playoff game with Boston, drove in three runs and Doyle, a Series starter only because of an injury to second baseman Willie Randolph, knocked in two. Also delivering two RBls was Jackson, who exacted full revenge against Welch by belting a seventh-inning home run off the fastballer. Jim (Catfish) Hunter, with two innings of relief help from Gossage, was a 7-2 winner at Dodger Stadium. In becoming the first team in World Series history to fall behind two games to none and then win in six, the Yankees received another clutch performance from Reggie Jackson.
Although Mr. October hit .391 with two homers and eight RBIs, his batting average was no better than third among the Yankees. Eighth-place hitter Doyle (a .192 batter in 52 regular-season at-bats) finished at .438 and ninth-place batter Dent (a .243 contributor in the regular season) wound up at .417.
