Much Ado About Nothing With Rivera

You know how you're a really great pitcher? When you give up a few runs and everyone goes nuts. This happens every year with Mariano Rivera. He's really good, has one bad stretch or a few bad games, and everyone goes nuts. After a bad game on Saturday, Buster Olney was writing about Mo's diminished velocity, John Harper of the New York Daily News expressed great concern with the Yankees' closer, Bill Simmons was already getting excited about his podcast with Jack-O with a celebratory post on Twitter, and Larry Brooks of the New York Post was talking about how Girardi dissed Mariano.

But thankfully cooler heads prevailed. Was Watching said that Girardi didn't diss Rivera (even if he did make an odd decision) and then Rivera went out and stuck it to Olney, Harper and the rest of the nay-sayers by throwing a 10-pitch save yesterday. Any maybe there was good reason reason for Rivera's struggles on Saturday. As Yahoo! Sports recounts:

“You’d think they’d learn,” he said on his way out the door Sunday, grinning brightly, not at all unhappy. “Every year it happens.”

This ninth-inning resurrection was different than most, however, if not all. And it speaks to the ballplayer Rivera is, and the teammate he is, and even the person he is.

For several hours before Rivera took the ball Saturday afternoon in that tie game, he’d suffered with a stomach ailment that brought aches and repeated vomiting, according to one Yankee. Rivera had rolled off the trainer’s table, where he’d hoped to sleep it off, and into the bullpen in the eighth inning, when he began to warm up.

So, no, he didn’t have his best command. And, no, he didn’t have his best fastball.

But, he didn’t sprinkle the Yankee Stadium mound with breakfast, which, in itself, was a small victory, even in defeat.

“He was so upset afterward,” the teammate said.

And yet, Rivera did not mention it after the game, and he did not reveal it late Sunday afternoon, when it would have played less like an excuse than, in victory, the simple retelling of a trying 30 hours. He did not hang those hittable fastballs or that loss on his illness. He did not blame manager Joe Girardi for asking him to pitch in a tie game when a healthier body might have – and probably should have – done.

He accepted the baseball.

That was that.

The greatest closer in the game doesn't complain and doesn't make excuses. He's the anti-Gary Sheffield who complained all the time, the anti-Milton Bradley who has an excuse for everything, and the anti-Carl Pavano who wouldn't take the ball when injured. If Mo takes the ball and screws up every once in a while, we shouldn't be giving him such a tough time. He's given up more hits per 9 innings than at any other point in his career so far, but he's also struck out more and walked less, which is amazing considering he had 6 (!) walks in 70.2 innings last season. He's on pace for 84 Ks which would be his most since he was a set-up man and pitched 107.2 innings in 1996. Actually, according to Play Index Rivera's 14.50 SO/BB ratio is the third best single season mark for any pitcher since 1901 with 24 games pitched behind 1989 and 1990 Dennis Eckersley, and actually is beating out Rivera's own ridiculous 12.83 from last year. He may not have his best stuff anymore and he may continue to decline (and, yes, at some point we may have to think about his replacement), but let's give the old man his due: as he showed on Sunday afternoon, Mariano Rivera can still pitch.