Sept. 30, 1964 - “Yeah, we have a chance now,” Yankee manager Yogi Berra said in his first easy breath after a hard day’s night.
His team had just beaten Detroit, 7-6 and 11-8, to move 3½ games ahead of idle, second-place Chicago. The Yanks must win only two of their remaining five games to clinch the American League pennant for the 29th time. Two losses by Chicago could do it, too.
Tonight was chilly, and only 16,010 were attracted to Yankee Stadium, but Berra sweated out every one of the 363 minutes of both games. The Tigers had the winning run on first base before the last out in the opener and had the tying run at the plate at the end of the nightcap. “It was a struggle,” Berra remarked as he pulled off his pinstripe pants.
Berra tried to seem unconcerned that two of his front-line pitchers — Al Downing and Jim Bouton, on whom he must depend in the World Series — were manhandled in the doubleheader, but he pointed out that his players had collected 22 hits, including three homers, for the night. “Maybe they [Downing and Bouton] would have pitched better if we hadn’t gotten so many hits,” Yogi said with a smile that disappeared as soon as he saw that his listeners didn’t believe him.
Bouton, who received credit for his 18th win against 13 losses despite being shelled by a pair of home runs in the seventh inning, was more honest. “Whew,” he said, “that was a sloppy win, wasn’t it? I wasn’t keeping the ball low at all.”
Bouton proved to be more valuable with his bat. He laid down his second straight bunt single after Clete Boyer had singled to lead off the sixth, and it started a four-run rally, which included the winning run. Tom Tresh’s two-run homer in the eighth wasn’t needed — except, perhaps, for Berra’s peace of mind.
Bouton also made it to third, warmup jacket and all, with a hard slide on Phil Linz’s run-scoring single. “When I’m pitching so bad,” he said, “I have to do those extra things.”
Catcher Elston Howard caught another doubleheader and went 4-for-8 with three runs batted in. “I’m tired, but I’ll play as long as he [Berra] wants me to,” said last year’s MVP. “That’s about 25 straight for me, but I talked to [Detroit catcher Bill] Freehan, and he’s played about 45. Then again, he’s younger.”
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