MLB

SUMMER OF ‘77

Remember the sizzling, scintillating summer of 1977 when Billy Martin’s Yankees stormed past the Red Sox and went on to capture their first World Championship in 15 years by beating the Dodgers in six games as Reggie Jackson blasted three home runs in the grand finale?

In this series, The Post takes you back 30 years to one of the greatest seasons in Yankee history.

TORONTO – The Kansas City Royals want a piece of the Yankees badly for last year’s sins. The Dodgers and the Phillies eye that big Stadium in the Bronx sky.

“We won’t have a good year,” said Piniella, “unless we win everything. All the pressure is on us.”

The Yankees won something last night. Don Gullett was overpowering with a 5-3, 12-strikeout win over the tenacious Blue Jays with Graig Nettles supplying the margin with a two-run ninth-inning homer.

The Orioles lost and fell to 2 1?2 back, the Red Sox won and stayed at three but the Yankee magic number dropped to seven. The pennant could come by Tuesday or Wednesday.

When the Yankees clinch – only a catastrophe the size of the San Francisco earthquake can stop them now

– it really won’t be much of a victory at all.

“Last year we had an easy race in the East and the playoffs had all the excitement,” said Piniella. “This year

the race has all the excitement and we have to get back up for the playoffs and the Series.”

“The World Series last year,” said Nettles, “came on us too quickly after the playoffs. It really was anticlimactic.”