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24 July 2004

Rivera Unable to Seal the Deal.

BOSTON -- After all of the craziness that went on in the first eight innings of Saturday's Yankees-Red Sox game, what happened in the ninth may have been the most bizarre event of the day.

A bench-clearing incident, a sixth inning that took more than one hour to play and five ejections were just the setup for the grand finale: a blown save by Mariano Rivera.

Rivera, who was 35-for-36 in save opportunities entering Saturday's game, served up a two-run, walk-off home run to Boston's Bill Mueller, giving the Red Sox an improbable 11-10 victory to keep their hopes alive in the American League East.

"I'm disappointed in myself," Rivera said. "I should've done better."

Joe Torre actually handed the ball to Rivera earlier than usual, asking his closer to get the final out of the eighth inning. With David Ortiz at first base, Manny Ramirez stepped to the plate, representing the tying run. Rivera took care of business, getting Ramirez to fly out on his first pitch.

Nomar Garciaparra started the ninth with a double to left field, belting an 0-2 pitch to bring the tying run to the plate.

"I'm not sure he wanted to throw that 0-2 pitch to Nomar down and in," Torre said. "I don't know if it was location, or if he just didn't have his good stuff today."

Trot Nixon lifted a fly ball to deep right field, but Gary Sheffield was able to catch it for the first out, moving Garciaparra to third.

"I don't consider myself lucky. I never think like that," Rivera said of Nixon's ball, which looked like it may leave the yard off the bat. "You just take a deep breath and go after the next batter."

Kevin Millar singled in Garciaparra, cutting the lead to 10-9 and putting the tying run on base.

"I was missing," Rivera said. "I couldn't get the pitches where I wanted them to go."

That brought Mueller to the plate with the chance to be a hero, though the defending AL batting champion said he wasn't trying to hit a home run. But after working the count to 3-1, that's exactly what he did.

"I'm trying to get into a good hitter's count or have a good at-bat, see some pitches, get on base," Mueller said. "I was very fortunate that it carried. It hadn't been carrying today."

"The pitch did nothing," Rivera said of his cutter. "It didn't do anything. I tried to get it inside and it went right out over the plate."

The blown save snapped Rivera's streak of 23 consecutive successfully converted opportunities, which was the longest in the Majors. It also cost the Yankees a chance of sweeping their rivals for a second straight series, though New York's lead in the AL East remains at a healthy 8 1/2 games.

"It's disappointing," Rivera said. "We had a chance to win the game, but I blew it. It wasn't good."

Mark Feinsand is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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