The pitch Yankees closer Mariano Rivera will ride into the Hall of Fame breaks violently into left-handed hitters.
Shattered bats fly through the infield and hitters shake their hands as if stung by a family of bees after being victimized by the cut fastball that has been Rivera’s calling card forever.
And when the cutter doesn’t cut? Well, it’s rare, but it happened last night when Rivera’s signature pitch did not break in on Bobby Abreu’s hands and he drove a two-run homer into the right-field seats in the ninth inning to lift the Angels to a 6-4 victory over the Yankees in front of 46,466 at the Stadium.
“The pitch didn’t get there enough,” Rivera said of the first homer he has allowed to a left-handed batter this year in 75 at-bats. “It was not in enough.”
It was the second consecutive game in which Rivera failed in a late-inning situation. On Sunday night in Boston, he blew his fifth save by allowing a run in the ninth inning of a game the Red Sox won 3-2 in 10 innings.
Rivera, 41, has been so good for so long that when he doesn’t perform in back-to-back games, panic smothers the Yankees. Yet Rivera never offers a hint of concern.
“I don’t worry about that,” Rivera (1-2) said of two subpar outings. “It will happen. Unfortunately it happened [last night]. I am not concerned.”
The Yankees’ third straight loss had more than one villain. A.J. Burnett was better than in his last outing, when he did not qualify for a victory after being handed a 13-1 lead in Chicago, but he was not great. And Curtis Granderson was caught attempting to steal second base for the final out with two men on and Mark Teixeira at the plate.
The defeat dropped the Yankees 2 1/2 games behind the first-place Red Sox in the AL East and shaved their wild-card lead over the Angels to six lengths.
With Eduardo Nunez on third and Granderson on first, Angels closer Jordan Walden used the fake-to-third move once and then stepped off to hold Granderson, the potential tying run. Figuring Walden was out of bluffs, Granderson broke for second when Walden again made a motion toward third.
“I have never seen it that many times in the same inning,” said Granderson, who was tagged out in a rundown.
Since Teixeira has a team-leading 32 homers, was Granderson better off staying put at first than risking a steal of second?
“I have to be aggressive,” said Granderson, who homered off starter Dan Haren in the first inning. “It’s a lot easier to score from second.”
Burnett put the Yankees in a 4-1 ditch when he gave up four runs in the sixth. But the Yankees tied the score with a three-run rally in the seventh that started with two outs and included an RBI single by Nunez (2-for-3) and a two-run single by Derek Jeter, getting Burnett off the hook. Burnett allowed four runs and seven hits in six innings, striking out six and walking three, and has not won since June 29.
Abreu had not had many previous looks at the cutter — he was 2-for-5 lifetime against Rivera — so he was in shock that he reached the seats for his sixth homer of the season and second of the game.
“It’s a homer against Mariano, it’s unbelievable,” Abreu said. “Believe me, you don’t expect to hit a home run off of Mariano Rivera. It’s tough to make contact against him, and to hit a homer? It’s nice, believe me. You have to be realistic. He’s the best closer in the game.”
george.king@nypost.com