HOUSTON — There appears to be no end to what Mariano Rivera can do.
On Sunday, he even brought Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens back together, as the two shook hands and hugged briefly near the Yankees dugout following the Astros’ tribute to Rivera at Minute Maid Park.
Clemens declined to talk about Pettitte when approached by reporters.
“We did it up right,” Clemens said, referring to the Rivera ceremony.
Pettitte said it was good to see his former teammate.
“I didn’t want to make a scene,” Pettitte said. “When he called my name, I went over there.”
Clemens didn’t discuss his thoughts on Pettitte, who was deposed on Wednesday in Brian McNamee’s defamation case against Clemens.
McNamee, Clemens’ former trainer, has accused Clemens of defaming him by saying McNamee lied about injecting Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs.
Pettitte had previously testified Clemens told him he had used HGH, but later said he may have been mistaken.
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Rivera stayed true to his word and didn’t play against the Astros.
He was presented with a piece of artwork and then apologized to the Astros and their fans for not pitching in the last series.
“The reason I [did] that is because I want to leave with the game I played on Thursday in Yankee Stadium,” Rivera said. “I want to keep that memory. That’s the only reason I haven’t pitched here. I want to be a little selfish and I want to leave the game with that.”
The closer said he was ready to end his career.
“Now [that] it’s definitely over, a sense of relief, yes,” Rivera said. “No sadness at all. I did everything that I could. We fell short. You can’t do anything against that.”
And he had no regrets.
“Definitely, I’ve been ready for this moment,” Rivera said. “I’m OK with it. I’m happy with it and move on.”
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Like many others, manager Joe Girardi has noticed Robinson Cano jog to first base on more than one occasion.
“I’ve talked to him about it,” Girardi said. “He has played every day. He has been kind of nicked up. I’ve talked to him about it.”
When asked to elaborate, Girardi said: “I’ll just leave it at that.”
The second baseman will now start his “vacation” as he heads toward free agency and he won’t simply be thinking about cashing in.
“When you play this game, you never think about the money,” Cano said. “You go through a process, minor leagues. You hope to make it big one day. I’ve been able to play here for a lot of years. I was here with [Derek] Jeter, [Alex Rodriguez], Mariano [Rivera], [Jorge] Posada, Bernie [Williams], [Jason] Giambi, all those guys. I want to be one of them one day.”
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Girardi advocated David Robertson take over for Rivera as closer.
“I think he is the guy that has the ability to do that,” Girardi said. “I think right now, he is our best candidate.”
His advice to Robertson was simple.
“Just be yourself,” Girardi said. “You can’t be Mo. You have to understand that is probably going to be times there, comparisons, but that is just part of the game. Tino [Martinez] had to go through it with Don Mattingly. If you end up doing your job, the situation will take care of itself.”
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Hiroki Kuroda hasn’t given much thought to his free agency yet.
“Anything’s possible,” Kuroda said through a translator.
The right-hander struggled during the latter part of the season, but he said that won’t be his focus in the offseason.
“When I make a decision, I should look at the whole year instead of the last few weeks or months,” Kuroda said.
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The dramatic goodbyes of both Rivera and Pettitte left their mark on Joe Torre, who managed Rivera for his entire 1996-2007 run with the Yankees and had Pettitte from 1996 through 2003 and then again in 2007.
“If you have say goodbye, it’s pretty tough to beat the way they’ve done it,” said Torre, who came to Minute Maid Park to participate in the Astros’ pregame farewell ceremony for Rivera.
Torre laughed as he commended Rivera for his “endurance” in getting honored at 18 different ballparks this season.
“I don’t think it’s unusual at all that these teams are honoring him,” Torre said, “They want to make sure that he doesn’t come back.”
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Travis Hafner played for the first time since being reinstated from the 60-day DL with a shoulder injury and was hit by two pitches.
Additional reporting by Ken Davidoff