Sunday, April 16, 2006
Rivera Blows Save, Loses First Game
Everything seemed to be going right for the Yankees on Saturday night.
They had overcome a four-run deficit against Johann Santana, their bullpen had thrown five scoreless innings after a rocky start by Jaret Wright and the offense came through with some clutch hits, giving New York a one-run lead heading into the ninth inning.
Then the Twins scored twice against Mariano Rivera.
The Yankees came back from a four run deficit against former Cy Young winner Johann Santana capping off with an Alex Rodriguez go-ahead RBI in the seventh.
Mariano Rivera came in for his second save situation and got out of the eighth with an inning-ending double play.
In the ninth, Mo ran into trouble. He gave up a "hit" to Luis Castillo and Joe Mauer. The reason why I out hits in quotations is because the third strike on both calls were blown calls by the umps. Castillo's check swing was ruled a ball that led to an infield hit, and Mauer's strike three was ruled a ball before turning it into a hit. Rivera had no trouble striking out Rondell White and Torii Hunter.
Up came Justin Morneau.
On the very first pitch, he hit a broken bat bloop single that brought in the tying, and winning runs.
This goes to show that Rivera is in fact not God, but very close. May I remind you that Rivera had a bad April last year, and wound up finishing in the top five for the Cy Young voting. The season is still young.
Jaret Wright took the damage allowing four runs, three earned, and Rivera took the loss for the first decision of the season.
Player of the Game:
Derek Jeter went 3-3 with a walk, three RBIs and a run scored.
Up Next:
Chein-Ming Wang vs. Brad Radke
Posted by Steve Kenul at 1:29 PM
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