Once again, Mariano Rivera was center stage for a crucial Yankees victory. And once again, he shut the door on their opponents.
This time, Rivera got the final six outs of a 5-2 victory over the Angels that sent the Bombers to their 40th American League pennant and a meeting with the Phillies in the World Series.
“Six big outs,” Jorge Posada said of Rivera’s two innings of work in Game 6 of the ALCS.
Although Rivera, the greatest postseason closer of all time, gave up a run in the eighth inning, he still finished the Angels off, striking out Gary Matthews Jr. swinging to end the series.
It was the 13th time Rivera has gotten a two-inning save in the postseason.
“The plan was, if we needed him for two [innings] tonight, he was fresh and ready to go,” pitching coach Dave Eiland said. “And it worked out to where we needed him for two or we could use him for two. And he went out there and he got the job done.”
Rivera said he was not concerned with the Yankees asking him to pitch two innings, adding he had “no doubts.”
“That doesn’t work in my agenda,” he said.
Rivera saw his postseason scoreless streak end at 16 innings when he served up a run in the eighth inning on Vladimir Guerrero’s RBI single. It marked the first time Rivera had given up an earned run in the playoffs since Game 1 of the 2005 ALDS.
In the ninth inning, though, he set the Angels down 1-2-3.
“We know we had a couple days off in between and we’ve got a couple days off in between here and the World Series,” Posada said. “So you can’t say enough about Mariano. Mariano gave us a chance every time and nobody’s like him. There’s nobody like him.”
Rivera will now go for his fifth World Series championship and first since 2000. In his Fall Classic career, he has pitched 20 games, allowing just four earned runs in 31 innings for a 1.16 ERA.