Miguel Cabrera, the most dangerous hitter on the planet, looked more like an escapee from an old-age home. He was hobbling on an ailing left hip. And that was before the added agony of two fouls off the left knee and shin. Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer the planet has ever known, went in for the kill.
And Cabrera, the reigning American League MVP and Triple Crown winner, launched a 2-2 two-seam fastball that didn’t get in quite enough over the wall in center field, temporarily stunning the Yankees and their sellout crowd on “Alex Rodriguez Comes Home and Whiffs Three Times” Night. Television cameras caught Rivera mouthing, “Wow,” as Cabrera circled the bases with his two-run homer that tied the game at 3-3 in the ninth. Rivera readily admitted his reaction.
“Yeah, because he was limping and to hit the ball like that, it’s amazing,” Rivera said. “I didn’t execute what I needed to do — bottom line. You can’t make excuses for that.”
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Oh, the Yankees won, 4-3, in 10 innings and that was what Rivera cared about, though Yankees fans mouthed their own “Wow.” Rivera had just blown his second straight save, for the first time since April 2011. He gave up the lead in Chicago on Wednesday, a game the Yankees eventually lost.
“Tough game in Chicago and tough game here. We won, and that’s the most important thing,” Rivera said. “It’s not about, ‘I didn’t do my job’ or ‘Someone else didn’t do their job.’ We’ve got 25 players pulling for each other.”
Plus, it’s not like Rivera got torched by a defensive shortstop, though Cabrera was 0-for-4 against the future Hall of Famer before slamming his 34th homer of the season and 16th of his career against the Yankees.
“You want to grind the at-bat,” Cabrera said. “You fight, you fight. Try to get your best at-bat. You don’t want to try to do too much. Let him make a mistake.”
Said Brett Gardner of the Cabrera-Rivera showdown, “He’s the best hitter in the game, and he got him.”
“The guy is special no doubt about that,” Rivera said.
It almost never came to that seventh pitch in the at-bat. Cabrera lifted the foul ball toward first. Lyle Overbay gave chase, but could not make the play near the camera well.
“It’s not an easy play, so I’m not hanging my head,” Overbay said. “I tried to make a play and I didn’t, but you still got Mariano on the mound and I’ll take him against any hitter any day.”