On a precious day in both Yankees history and the 2013 season, what stood between a storybook ending and baseball ruin were Mark Reynolds, Brendan Ryan and J.R. Murphy.
That would be one of the great strikeout-meisters ever, one of the worst hitters of the last quarter century and a rookie with 11 career at-bats. They were due up in the ninth inning Sunday with the Yankees down a run. Because of injuries and an unproductive farm pipeline, this was the trio that stood between Mariano Rivera Day and Andy Pettitte’s last Yankee Stadium start having an ugly footnote.
And — welcome to the 2013 Yankees — Joe Girardi did not have better alternatives.
“I really thought we would have the magic to pull this off,” Pettitte said.
But there is no magic this year. Mystique and aura have gone on vacation — not coincidentally at the same time the Yanks have their least talent in 20 years. Pettitte and Rivera were same as they ever were — the group around them was not.
Somehow the Yankees lost 2-1 to San Francisco, though Pettitte pitched one of the best games of his career and Rivera authored 1 2/3 innings.
It ended with Reynolds grounding out, Ryan popping out, Murphy striking out, and the Yankees were four back in the wild card with six to play — and with two teams not currently in the playoffs between them and the leaders.
“We have to try to pull off a miracle here,” Pettitte said.
But there will be no miracles, not with this many flaws. What awaits is a death notice, date and time the only lingering mysteries. Because if the Yankees were not going to win Sunday, well, how do we expect them to win out and have the others lose in just such a way that would allow them into the playoffs?
Think about what the Yankees had going in their favor. A dead Giants team as the opponent. A for-once loud, full house at the new Stadium, the fervor raised with a powerful pregame ceremony for Rivera.
In Pettitte’s first 215 regular-season starts at the Stadium, he had never opened a game with more than 4 ¹/₃ no-hit or perfect innings, doing so when he was a rookie, Aug. 30, 1995, against the Angels. But he was perfect for 4 ²/₃ innings Sunday and had a no-hitter for 5 ²/₃. The first hit was a homer by No. 9 batter Ehire Adrianza.
With the score 1-1 and Pettitte at 102 pitches, Girardi let the lefty start the eighth. The Yankee manager insisted he was not caught up in the moment, but merely wanted Pablo Sandoval batting from his weaker right side. Sandoval doubled, Pettitte left to a standing ovation and returned for a curtain call.
Pinch-runner Nick Noonan went to third on a groundout. Rivera was ready. But, Girardi said, Tony Abreu’s enormous weakness is curveballs and David Robertson’s is very good. So Robertson stayed in, threw one and Abreu lashed a double. Thus, Pettitte gave up two hits in seven-plus innings — and both scored.
Still, two runs should not have beaten him. In the seventh, the Yankees had second and third and one out. But the faded Vernon Wells and Ichiro Suzuki both whiffed. In the eighth, they had second and third and no outs. Zoilo Almonte was on third, pinch-running for the gimpy Alex Rodriguez. Girardi had no better choices with Brett Gardner hurt, and even Jayson Nix, too.
The Yanks did not have a contact play on, and Almonte initially froze on an Alfonso Soriano grounder to third. But Noonan dove to make the play and Almonte tried to start up again and was easily thrown out at the plate. And then Robinson Cano was pegged out at the plate following Eduardo Nunez’s single to end the inning.
So with Lyle Overbay, Wells and even Almonte used, the Yankees needed a run in the ninth to tie. And on the day they honored two of their all-time greats, Girardi had only Reynolds, Ryan and Murphy — none of whom were even with the big club before Aug. 15.
“It is hard to believe [the Yanks didn’t win] because it always seems to happen,” Pettitte said. “I really thought it was going to happen. I can’t believe I am sitting here and we lost another game. This was a big loss.”
Big in so many ways. Soiling Rivera’s day, Pettitte’s last Stadium start, and the lingering hope of that miracle close for the team.
It was the latest — and arguably — strongest symbol that this team’s talent drain means there is no magic, and so soon there will be no magic number either.