Do you know how awesome Mariano Rivera is? He’s so great that one of his worst outings ever is an opportunity to praise him.
On Tuesday night at Citi Field, Rivera blew a save without recording an out for the first time in his career. Rivera is 43 years old and has been pitching since 1995. The man has recorded 626 saves and only blown 74 saves in his MLB career. And it took 1,072 appearances for him to finally blow a save without getting an out.
Rivera allowed a ground-rule double to Daniel Murphy to start the bottom of the ninth with the New York Yankees up 1-0 on the New York Mets. David Wright then lined a 92-mph 2-0 cutter up the middle for an RBI single, and he advanced to second after the ball got away from catcher Chris Stewart on the throw home. Lucas Duda then won the game by hitting a soft liner to right on a 1-1 pitch that scored Wright. Three hits, two runs, and a win.
It’s not at all like Rivera was rocked. He gave up a solid hit to Wright, while Murphy did a good job going with an outside pitch and Duda managed to get a hit despite being jammed. When it’s that easy for a team to string together a few hits, it’s incredible that Rivera went this long without blowing a save in this manner.
Rivera entered the game a perfect 18-18 on save opportunities for the season, so this was his first blown save. The longtime closer actually has a history of struggling (by his standards) against the Mets. He is 4-4 with 20 saves and three blown saves against them. His 3.53 career ERA against the Mets is his second-worst ERA against a team for his career (he has a 3.65 ERA against the Angels).
The Mets also asked Rivera to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for the game, so maybe that got karma going in their favor. That video is below:
