MLB

YANKEES CATCH RED SOX FROM 14 GAMES BACK

The Bronx was burning in the summer of 1978, its championship dreams seemingly in flames. There was no way its dysfunctional Bombers, 14 games behind the hated Red Sox on July 19, were going to set the city afire the way they did a year earlier, when Reggie Jackson blasted those three home runs on three pitches in Game 6 and the Yankees beat the Dodgers for their first title since Ralph Terry got Willie McCovey to line to Bobby Richardson at the end of Game 7 in 1962.

The 1977 Yankees had overcome Thurman vs. Reggie. But now, even as Ron Guidry was lighting up the sky with his Louisiana Lightning, Billy vs. Reggie and Billy vs. The Boss were sabotaging the season, and giving Don Zimmer and Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Rice their best chance in a long, long time to end the Curse of the Bambino.

The Bronx Zoo was burning when the volatile Martin decided to attack George Steinbrenner for making illegal 1972 campaign contributions to Richard Nixon. “The two of them [Jackson and Steinbrenner] deserve each other: One’s a born liar; the other’s convicted,” Martin bellowed. In a matter of days, Martin “resigned.” Mellow Bob Lemon, his polar opposite, replaced him.

Lemon had a Joe Torre-esque effect on his team, and suddenly, with the Red Sox succumbing to injuries, hearing footsteps and undoubtedly haunted by ghosts, the Yankees, more at ease thanks to a city newspaper strike, had closed their deficit to four games, with a four-game Armaggedon at Fenway awaiting them one week into September, just as Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat were meeting with President Jimmy Carter at Camp David.

Game 1: Yankees 15, Red Sox 3.

Game 2: Yankees 13, Red Sox 2.

Game 3: Yankees 7 Red Sox 0, a complete- game shutout by Guidry.

Game 4: Yankees 7, Red Sox 4.

The Boston Massacre. An outburst of 42 runs and 67 hits.

The Red Sox looked finished. The Yankees surged to a 31⁄2-game lead. But somehow, the Sox dug deep and found enough character to rally back with an eight-game winning streak capped on the last day of the regular season when Luis Tiant blanked the Blue Jays 5-0 as Catfish Hunter and the Yanks were losing to Rick Waits and the lowly Indians at the Stadium.

One-game playoff at Fenway the next day.

Guidry, the 25-3 eventual Cy Young winner, vs. Mike Torrez.

And up stepped the Legend of Bucky Dent.

Down 2-0 in the seventh, with Chris Chambliss and Roy White on base, the weak-hitting shortstop fouled a 1-0 pitch off his foot. Mickey Rivers, on deck, noticed that Dent’s bat was cracked, and had the batboy give him one of his.

“Deep to left,” Yankee announcer Bill White shrilled. Deep to left and onto the netting atop the Green Monster. Yankees 3, Red Sox 2. “I didn’t know it was a home run until the second-base umpire signaled it was a home run,” Dent would say. “It was an eerie feeling because the ballpark was dead silent.”

The nailbiting, heart-pounding classic ended 5-4 when Goose Gossage got Carl Yastrzemski to pop to third baseman Graig Nettles with the tying run on third. That put the Yankees in the playoffs against the Royals, on their way to another World Series triumph over the Dodgers.

It ended with generations inside Red Sox Nation cursing Bucky Bleeping Dent.

steve.serby@nypost.com