1977 Boston Red Sox
LeagueAmerican League
DivisionEast
BallparkFenway Park
CityBoston, Massachusetts
Record97–64 (.602)
Divisional place2nd (tied; 2+1⁄2 GB)
OwnerJean Yawkey
PresidentJean Yawkey
General managerDick O'Connell
ManagerDon Zimmer
TelevisionWSBK-TV, Ch. 38
(Dick Stockton, Ken Harrelson)
RadioWMEX-AM 1510
(Ned Martin, Jim Woods)
StatsESPN.com
BB-reference
← 1976 Seasons 1978 →

The 1977 Boston Red Sox season was the 77th season in the franchise's Major League Baseball history. The Red Sox finished tied for second in the American League East with a record of 97 wins and 64 losses, 2+1⁄2 games behind the New York Yankees.

Offseason

Regular season

Record by month[3]
Month Record Cumulative AL East Ref.
Won Lost Won Lost Position GB
April 9 9 9 9 4th 2+1⁄2 [4]
May 15 12 24 21 3rd 2+1⁄2 [5]
June 17 10 41 31 1st +1⁄2 [6]
July 17 12 58 43 1st — [7]
August 17 12 75 55 2nd (tie) 4 [8]
September 22 8 97 63 2nd 2 [9]
October 0 1 97 64 2nd (tie) 2+1⁄2 [10]

Boston's final game of the season, scheduled for October 2 at home against the Baltimore Orioles, was rained out and not rescheduled.[11]

Highlights

Lack of pitching depth might have been a hindrance, but the team was helped by a league-leading offense,[12] which during one ten-game span hit 33 home runs.[12] With that kind of scoring, Boston managed to compete with the Yankees and Orioles—leading the division as late as August 22[13]—but at season's end, not even 97 wins would be enough.

On June 18, during a nationally televised game against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park in Boston, Jim Rice, a powerful hitter but a slow runner, hit a ball into right field. Yankees outfielder Reggie Jackson seemed to approach the ball indifferently, and Rice reached second base. Furious, Yankees manager Billy Martin removed Jackson from the game without even waiting for the end of the inning, sending Paul Blair out to replace him. When Jackson arrived at the dugout, Martin yelled that Jackson had shown him up. They argued, and Jackson said that Martin's heavy drinking had impaired his judgment. Despite Jackson being 18 years younger, about 4 inches (10 cm) taller and maybe 40 pounds (18 kg) heavier, Martin lunged at him, and had to be restrained by coaches Yogi Berra and Elston Howard. Red Sox fans could see this in the dugout and began cheering wildly, and the NBC television cameras showed the confrontation to the entire country. The Red Sox went on to win the game, 10–4.[14]

Season standings

AL East 		W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 100 62 0.617 — 55–26 45–36
Baltimore Orioles 97 64 0.602 2½ 54–27 43–37
Boston Red Sox 97 64 0.602 2½ 51–29 46–35
Detroit Tigers 74 88 0.457 26 39–42 35–46
Cleveland Indians 71 90 0.441 28½ 37–44 34–46
Milwaukee Brewers 67 95 0.414 33 37–44 30–51
Toronto Blue Jays 54 107 0.335 45½ 25–55 29–52

Record vs. opponents

1977 American League record

Sources: [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK SEA TEX TOR
Baltimore — 6–8 5–6 5–5 11–4 12–3 4–7 11–4 6–4 8–7 8–2 7–3 4–6 10–5
Boston 8–6 — 7–3 3–7 8–7 9–6 5–5 9–6 4–6 8–7 8–3 10–1 6–4 12–3
California 6–5 3–7 — 8–7 6–4 4–6 6–9 5–5 7–8 4–7 5–10 9–6 5–10 6–4
Chicago 5–5 7–3 7–8 — 6–4 4–6 8–7 6–5 10–5 3–7 10–5 10–5 6–9 8–3
Cleveland 4–11 7–8 4–6 4–6 — 8–7 3–7 11–4 2–9 3–12 7–3 7–3 2–9 9–5
Detroit 3–12 6–9 6–4 6–4 7–8 — 3–8 10–5 5–5 6–9 5–5 5–6 2–8 10–5
Kansas City 7–4 5–5 9–6 7–8 7–3 8–3 — 8–2 10–5 5–5 9–6 11–4 8–7 8–2
Milwaukee 4–11 6–9 5–5 5–6 4–11 5–10 2–8 — 3–8 8–7 5–5 7–3 5–5 8–7
Minnesota 4–6 6–4 8–7 5–10 9–2 5–5 5–10 8–3 — 2–8 8–6 7–8 8–7 9–1
New York 7–8 7–8 7–4 7–3 12–3 9–6 5–5 7–8 8–2 — 9–2 6–4 7–3 9–6
Oakland 2–8 3–8 10–5 5–10 3–7 5–5 6–9 5–5 6–8 2–9 — 7–8 2–13 7–3
Seattle 3–7 1–10 6–9 5–10 3–7 6–5 4–11 3–7 8–7 4–6 8–7 — 9–6 4–6
Texas 6–4 4–6 10–5 9–6 9–2 8–2 7–8 5–5 7–8 3–7 13–2 6–9 — 7–4
Toronto 5–10 3–12 4–6 3–8 5–9 5–10 2–8 7–8 1–9 6–9 3–7 6–4 4–7 —


Notable transactions

Opening Day lineup

  7 Rick Burleson SS
  5 Denny Doyle 2B
14 Jim Rice LF
  8 Carl Yastrzemski     RF
15 George Scott 1B
  1 Bernie Carbo DH
24 Dwight Evans CF
27 Carlton Fisk C
  4 Butch Hobson 3B
31 Ferguson Jenkins P

Source:[17]

Roster

1977 Boston Red Sox
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Carlton Fisk 152 536 169 .315 26 102
1B George Scott 157 584 157 .269 33 95
2B Denny Doyle 137 455 109 .240 2 49
SS Rick Burleson 154 663 194 .293 3 52
3B Butch Hobson 159 593 157 .265 30 112
LF Carl Yastrzemski 150 558 165 .296 28 102
CF Fred Lynn 129 497 129 .260 18 76
RF Bernie Carbo 86 228 66 .289 15 34
DH Jim Rice 160 644 206 .320 39 114

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Dwight Evans 73 230 66 .287 14 36
Rick Miller 86 189 48 .254 0 24
Steve Dillard 66 141 34 .241 1 13
Tommy Helms 21 59 16 .271 1 5
Ted Cox 13 58 21 .362 1 6
Bob Montgomery 17 40 12 .300 2 7
Dave Coleman 11 12 0 .000 0 0
Bobby Darwin 4 9 2 .222 0 1
Doug Griffin 5 6 0 .000 0 0
Jack Baker 2 3 0 .000 0 0
Bob Bailey 2 2 0 .000 0 0
Sam Bowen 3 2 0 .000 0 0
Bo Diaz 2 1 0 .000 0 0
Ramón Avilés 1 0 0 ---- 0 0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Ferguson Jenkins 28 193.0 10 10 3.68 105
Reggie Cleveland 36 190.1 11 8 4.26 85
Luis Tiant 32 188.2 12 8 4.53 124
Rick Wise 26 128.1 11 5 4.77 85
Bill Lee 27 128.0 9 5 4.43 31
Don Aase 13 92.1 6 2 3.12 49

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Bob Stanley 41 151.0 8 7 3.99 44
Mike Paxton 29 108.0 10 5 3.83 58

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Bill Campbell 69 13 9 31 2.96 114
Jim Willoughby 31 6 2 2 4.94 33
Tom Murphy 16 0 1 0 6.75 13
Ramón Hernández 12 0 1 1 5.68 8
Tom House 8 1 0 0 12.91 6
Jim Burton 1 0 0 0 0.00 3
Rick Kreuger 1 0 1 0 inf 0

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Pawtucket Red Sox International League Joe Morgan
AA Bristol Red Sox Eastern League John Kennedy
A Winston-Salem Red Sox Carolina League Tony Torchia
A Winter Haven Red Sox Florida State League Rac Slider
A-Short Season Elmira Pioneer-Red Sox New York–Penn League Dick Berardino

Source:[18][19]

References

  1. ^ a b Darryl Cias page at Baseball Reference
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ "The 1977 Boston Red Sox". Retrosheet. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  4. ^ "Events of Saturday, April 30, 1977".
  5. ^ "Events of Tuesday, May 31, 1977".
  6. ^ "Events of Thursday, June 30, 1977".
  7. ^ "Events of Sunday, July 31, 1977".
  8. ^ "Events of Wednesday, August 31, 1977".
  9. ^ "Events of Friday, September 30, 1977".
  10. ^ "Events of Sunday, October 2, 1977".
  11. ^ Peters, Gil (October 3, 1977). "Sox, Orioles end in tie". Bennington Banner. Bennington, Vermont. UPI. p. 13. Retrieved October 10, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  12. ^ a b Aron, Eric (September 11, 2013). "Looking back: 1977 Boston Red Sox and the eight-homer game". Through The Fence Baseball. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  13. ^ "Events of Monday, August 22, 1977". Retrosheet. August 22, 1977.
  14. ^ "Boston Red Sox 10, New York Yankees 4". Retrosheet. June 18, 1977. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  15. ^ a b Ramón Hernández page at Baseball Reference
  16. ^ Pete Ladd page at Baseball Reference
  17. ^ "Cleveland Indians 5, Boston Red Sox 4". Retrosheet. April 7, 1977. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  18. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
  19. ^ Boston Red Sox Press TV Radio Guide. 1977. p. 24. Retrieved March 14, 2021 – via Wayback Machine.

Further reading

External links

1977 MLB season by team
Boston Red Sox
Categories