New York Yankees vs Boston Red Sox
October 2, 1978 Box Score

The box score below is an accurate record of events for the baseball contest played on October 2, 1978 at Fenway Park. The New York Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox and the box score is "ready to surrender its truth to the knowing eye."
Baseball Almanac Top Quote

"Deep to left! Yastrzemski will not get it! It's a home run! A three-run homer by Bucky Dent! And the Yankees now lead by a score of 3-2!" - New York Yankees announcer Bill White (October 2, 1978)

Baseball Almanac Box Scores

New York Yankees 5, Boston Red Sox 4

New York Yankees ab   r   h rbi
Rivers cf 2 1 1 0
  Blair ph,cf 1 0 1 0
Munson c 5 0 1 1
Piniella rf 4 0 1 0
Jackson dh 4 1 1 1
Nettles 3b 4 0 0 0
Chambliss 1b 4 1 1 0
White lf 3 1 1 0
  Thomasson lf 0 0 0 0
Doyle 2b 2 0 0 0
  Spencer ph 1 0 0 0
  Stanley 2b 1 0 0 0
Dent ss 4 1 1 3
Guidry p 0 0 0 0
  Gossage p 0 0 0 0
Totals 35 5 8 5
Boston Red Sox ab   r   h rbi
Burleson ss 4 1 1 0
Remy 2b 4 1 2 0
Rice rf 5 0 1 1
Yastrzemski lf 5 2 2 2
Fisk c 3 0 1 0
Lynn cf 4 0 1 1
Hobson dh 4 0 1 0
Scott 1b 4 0 2 0
Brohamer 3b 1 0 0 0
  Bailey ph 1 0 0 0
  Duffy 3b 0 0 0 0
  Evans ph 1 0 0 0
Torrez p 0 0 0 0
  Stanley p 0 0 0 0
  Hassler p 0 0 0 0
  Drago p 0 0 0 0
Totals 36 4 11 4
New York 000 000 410580
Boston 010 001 0204110
  New York Yankees IP H R ER BB SO
Guidry  W (25-3) 6.1 6 2 2 1 5
  Gossage  SV (27) 2.2 5 2 2 1 2
Totals 9.0 11 4 4 2 7
  Boston Red Sox IP H R ER BB SO
Torrez  L (16-13) 6.2 5 4 4 3 4
  Stanley   0.1 2 1 1 0 0
  Hassler   1.2 1 0 0 0 2
  Drago   0.1 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 9.0 8 5 5 3 6

  E–None.  PB–Munson (8).  2B–New York Rivers (25,off Torrez); Munson (27,off Stanley), Boston Scott (16,off Guidry); Burleson (32,off Guidry); Remy (24,off Gossage).  HR–New York Dent (5,7th inning off Torrez 2 on, 2 out); Jackson (27,8th inning off Stanley 0 on, 0 out), Boston Yastrzemski (17,2nd inning off Guidry 0 on, 0 out).  SH–Brohamer (4,off Guidry); Remy (14,off Guidry).  IBB–Fisk (6,by Guidry).  SB–Rivers 2 (25,2nd base off Torrez/Fisk,2nd base off Stanley/Fisk).  IBB–Guidry (1,Fisk).  U-HP–Don Denkinger, 1B–Jim Evans, 2B–Al Clark, 3B–Steve Palermo.  T–2:52.  A–32,925.

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Kodak, in association with The Sporting News, once selected Baseball's 25 Greatest Moments and the "Bucky Dent Home Run Game" finished fourteenth (14th). They described the moment with this entry, "The Yankees were down 2-0 when the seventh began but had rallied. Chris Chambliss and Roy White reached safely on singles and Dent, a .243 hitter with four home runs during the season, came to the plate with two out. Dent lofted a 1-1 pitch from Torrez, the Boston starter, over the Green Monster—the 37-foot wall in left field—to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead. Dent's shocking blast was the biggest blow in a 5-4 win over Boston and put the Yankees in postseason."

Harvey Frommer is the author of more than thirty (30) sports books. The Dartmouth College professor paid tribute to the Bucky Dent home run game with the following detailed / informative essay:

      Bucky Dent's Home Run
      October 2, 1978
      by Harvey Frommer

      Here they go again - the team from the Bronx and the one that plays in the Fens. Two special series in May 2003 - with the arch rivals doing it one more time. Head to head, for bragging rights and the top of the heap in the AL East.

      The mother of all such moments will always remain what happened on October 2, 1978 "When I hit the ball," Bucky Dent recalled, "I knew that I had hit it high enough to hit the wall. But there were shadows on the net behind the wall and I didn't see the ball land there. I didn't know I had hit a homer until I saw the umpire at first signaling home run with his hand. I couldn't believe it."

      Neither could the Red Sox. Don Zimmer, then Boston's skipper, changed the Yankee shortstop's name to "Bucky Fucking Dent." Red Sox fans had even more salty phrases.

      Dent's home run was the headline grabber in that one-game playoff game between the historic rivals at Fenway Park before 32,925. The Yankees were down to the Sox in the AL East by 14 games on July 19. After Billy Martin was fired as manager, Bob Lemon led the team to a 52-21 record. Losing 14 of 17 in September, the Sox made a late-season run winning their last eight games, catching the Yankees on the last day of the season.

      New York's 24 game winner Ron Guidry gave up two runs to Boston through six - a home run to Carl Yastrzemski and a Jim Rice RBI single. Mike Torrez, a former Yankee, was the Boston pitcher.

      Chris Chambliss singled. Roy White singled. That's how the top of the seventh began for the Yankees. All was just foreshadowing for Earl Russell Dent out of Savannah, Georgia. A fine defensive shortstop but not much of an offensive threat, he had hit but .243 for the season. For the last 20 games he had batted a puny .140. But the Yankees were out of infield replacements. Regular second baseman Willie Randolph was injured. Fred Stanley, the only other available mid-infielder, was slotted to come in and replace Brian Doyle, who had been hit for earlier in the inning.

      Dent stepped in. Just hoping to make contact, the 5'-9" Yankee peered out at Torrez, the 6'-5" Red Sox pitcher. The two were locked in, locked up.

      Dent fouled the second pitch off his foot. The count was one and one. There was a brief delay as the Yankees trainer tended to Dent. Mickey Rivers, the on-deck-batter, pointed out that there was a crack in the handsome infielder's bat. Dent borrowed a bat from Rivers.

      All set, Dent swung at the next pitch; the ball cleared the infield heading out to the left field wall. The wind and destiny moved the ball higher to its date with the Green Monster.

      "Deep to left!" Bill White, Yankees broadcaster shouted, "Yastrzemski will not get it!" Yaz backed up. He had been in this position before. But he knew it was hopeless. The ball sailed into the 23-foot net above the Green Monster, the 37-foot wall in left field. Three run home run!

      White, Chambliss and the entire Yankee bench were there waiting at home plate. It was all Bucky Dent that October day. "I was so damn shocked," Torrez said. "I thought maybe it was going to be off the wall. Damn, I did not think it was going to go out."

      Not many remember that the Red Sox still had a chance in the bottom of the ninth. But Goose Gossage got Carl Yastrzemski to pop out with 2 on and 2 out. Not many remember that the victory in that game was earned by Ron Guidry, moving his record to 25-3.

      "I had a dream as a kid," the player who was born Russell Earl O'Dey said. "I dreamed some day I would hit a home run to win something."

Fred Schwed, Jr., in How to Watch a Baseball Game (1957) wrote our favorite baseball box score quote, "The baseball box score is the pithiest form of written communication in America today. It is abbreviated history. It is two or three hours (the box score even gives that item to the minute) of complex activity, virtually inscribed on the head of a pin, yet no knowing reader suffers from eyestrain."