When Will Middlebrooks’ fly ball landed in the right-field seats to tie the game in ninth off Mariano Rivera, it seemed like the Yankees would be in store for another crushing loss to the Red Sox and a miserable end to a terrible weekend.
But Ichiro Suzuki helped the Yankees salvage something from the four-game series, as he raced home with the winning run thanks to a wild pitch by Brandon Workman in the bottom of the ninth for a 4-3 win.
Sunday’s win erased at least some of the damage done the previous three days — as well as in the top of the inning, when Rivera blew his second straight save opportunity and seventh of the season.
“We needed it,” Girardi said of the victory. “We had some pretty tough games the last few days and we wanted to finish the homestand right before we go on an important road trip to Baltimore.”
And while his early call to Rivera didn’t pay off, it was not a move Girardi regretted and he may wind up doing it again.
“He’d had a couple of days off and told us he thought he could give us two,” Girardi said, who was working with a depleted bullpen. “Mo was our best pitcher at that time and that’s who I went to. I wouldn’t have brought him in for the seventh, but I was not afraid to bring him in the eighth.”
Rivera was able to protect a 3-2 lead in the eighth, but needed 20 pitches to do it.
Middlebrooks then lifted a seemingly harmless fly to right, but at Yankee Stadium, there is no such thing.
“When it went in the air, I thought, ‘That’s a pop out’ and it went out,” Rivera said. “It’s part of the game. The other day, it would be a fly to right field. Today, the wind took it.”
And with Rivera intent on making 2013 his final season, Girardi admitted he may use Rivera differently than he has in the past.
“We have to guard him and make sure he doesn’t get hurt where we lose him for five or six days,” Girardi said. “But I think he’s at the point where he might come in [Monday] and say ‘I’m ready to go.’ Who knows? He’s not saving anything for 2014.”
Asked if he’s willing to take more risks with Rivera down the stretch, Girardi said, “Probably, yeah.”
Rivera doesn’t intend to shy away from the extra work. He has historically had a hard time following games like Sunday, when he has to throw a lot of pitches, but didn’t rule himself out for Monday.
“We need to win, so if it’s necessary for me to be in the game, I’ll be there,” the 43-year-old said. “They don’t need to talk to me. I’m old enough.”
The 35 pitches he threw Sunday were the most in an outing since 2010.
But Hiroki Kuroda needed 117 pitches to get through six innings and Shawn Kelley, just back from a triceps issue, barely escaped the seventh unscathed.
He got Dustin Pedroia to ground out to short with two on and David Ortiz on deck.
And Girardi didn’t have David Robertson or Boone Logan, both dealing with arm injuries, so he went with Rivera.
He was unable to protect the lead provided by Robinson Cano, whose two-run double off Jon Lester put the Yankees up 3-1 before Kuroda gave another run in the sixth.
Then came the eighth, with Ortiz coming up again.
“When you look at the options, you could have gone to [lefty Cesar] Cabral for Ortiz and then if they pinch-hit for [Mike] Carp and bring Mo in,” Girardi said.
But he decided not to wait.
And now they start a series against the Orioles with a tired bullpen.
“It’s not something I can do on a regular basis,” Girardi said. “The other guys are going to have to help out.”
And if they need Rivera Monday?
“I’ll see if he could throw left-handed,” Girardi said.