THE Yankees took a giant step toward the pennant last night by crushing the Red Sox at the Stadium in the opener of a vital threegame series.
Ron Guidry, whose fastball exploded at the knees, at the chest, at the letters and in the faces of the Red Sox, struck out nine, allowed only five hits and went the distance in the 4-2 win.
Ed Figueroa faces Reggie Cleveland in the second game of the set tonight with the Yankees now certain, with a 2 1?2 lead, of being a first-place team when the Red Sox leave town.
“That was like the old Oakland ball club,” said Reggie Jackson. “We won when we had to win. That game was the difference between being a half game ahead and 2 1?2 ahead.”
There were 55,269 fans at Yankee Stadium last night-the largest regular season Stadium crowd since the ballpark was rebuilt-who saw what they could not believe. Not that the Yankees won or that Mickey Rivers
homered or that Lou Piniella and Chris Chambliss had big hits.
Rather, that a 153-pound lefthander, who struggled to make the Yankees this spring, threw hard enough to change the Boston Lumber Company into a toothpick team.