Mariano Rivera returns to the site of his worst moment tonight. He plays in a stadium in Arizona where a ball left his hands, Luis Gonzalez looped a base hit and a dynasty ended.
That was nearly a decade ago, the 2001 Diamondbacks ending the Yankees’ four-peat dreams. It would have been possible at that moment — logical, in fact — to believe you had already seen the best of Rivera.
His 32nd birthday was less than four weeks away. The shelf life on most closers is not particularly impressive. And Rivera had just absorbed the kind of setback, a blown save in Game 7 of the World Series, that could devastate the confidence of even a tough-minded man.
Of course, Rivera is not just any tough-minded man. At this point, he might be the closest thing to Superman that baseball possesses. Relentless, timeless.
“You can’t say anything about him, except that he’s amazing,” summed up Andy Pettitte.
Since the 2001 World Series, Rivera has saved 327 games, which would be 12th all-time by itself, three fewer than the entire career of the man he replaced as Yankees closer, John Wetteland. He has appeared in another 36 postseason games since then, posting an 0.66 ERA over 54 innings and providing the backbone for another championship last year; durable and brilliant as ever when the Yanks needed him in the end.
And there he was yesterday going 1-2-3 to conclude another Subway Series. He did not earn a save in a 4-0 victory over the Mets, but he has retired the last 21 men he has faced perfectly — the equivalent of a seven-inning perfect game.
Keep in mind, he is doing this at 40. And also know this: He is throwing hard again. Rivera was a genius last year, as usual, but lived on so many nights with his patented cutter at 89 mph. Well more than a year removed from shoulder surgery, however, a few mph have reappeared in recent weeks. He threw 13 pitches in the ninth inning yesterday. None slower than 90 mph. Five at 91, five at 92. A few weeks back he was hitting 95, a number last seen in his prime.
Maybe you would expect this post-surgery from a younger man, to regain velocity. Rivera, though, is the fifth-oldest active pitcher.
“If you told me he was 25, I wouldn’t have known the difference,” said David Wright, who flied out for the second out of the ninth. “He is just as difficult now as ever. If he makes his pitch, you are out.”
That is Rivera’s credo. He says he couldn’t care less about the radar gun.
“All I can control is the location,” he said. “It’s about putting it where I want.”
But the extra velocity provides fewer microseconds for a hitter to react, to make judgments about a pitch, his cutter, devilish at any speed.
Pettitte said: “After last year, I just figured he would throw 89-90 (mph) the rest of his career and that would be fine. Now you look up on the board and it is 91-93 and, well, I have just given up on trying to figure him out.”
The Yanks had lost three straight, including the Subway opener Friday, before winning the last two, Rivera on the mound at the end both times. The Yanks managed just two hits in 23 at-bats with runners in scoring position all weekend — a bunt single by Nick Swisher in the third yesterday followed by Mark Teixeira’s grand slam — yet won the series and moved alone into first place.
There are many reasons they are again first in the grueling AL East, including what they still bring in last. Rivera is 16 for 17 in saves, his ERA is 1.11, his batting average against is .113, and now his fastball is again 90-something.
“It’s a blessing,” Rivera said. “I’m a blessed man.”
When it comes to Rivera, though, the Yankees continue to feel the most blessed of all.
joel.sherman@nypost.com