If David Robertson is indeed auditioning for Mariano Rivera’s job then it can’t go much better than this: He is performing like Mariano Rivera.
Rivera’s genius has revolved around three skills: He walks few, strikes out many and hardly ever gives up home runs. Thus, to score even one run, you often have to figure out how to get three singles before Rivera gets three outs. Good luck with that.
Going into this season, Robertson had two of those skills on lockdown. He is flat-out one of the best strikeout pitchers ever — that is right, ever — and he is very hard to hit a home run against. But he had the bugaboo of issuing walks. He showed another wonderful Rivera-esque trait — grace under pressure — by being able to escape the messes he created through bases on balls.
But eventually, free baserunners and bad counts will undermine even elite pitchers. So Robertson’s better strike-throwing has made him even more brilliant this season. How brilliant?
“It is like having Mo twice,” Mark Teixeira said. “That is how good Robbie has been.”
Thus, even with all the problems at the beginning of Yankees games, there has been nothing at all wrong with the end. Hiroki Kuroda held the Orioles to one run in seven innings last night for the Yankees’ seventh quality start of the season, which is just two more than the Athletics’ Bartolo Colon has.
But the Yankees have not been buried by their poor rotation work this season to a large extent because of their excellent pen. Cory Wade, Boone Logan and Rafael Soriano have been very good. Robertson, though, has been arguably the most dominant reliever in the game and Rivera has been, well, Rivera — and the compliments don’t get better than that.
Robertson struck out the side in the eighth and Rivera went broken-bat ground out, single, game-ending double play to preserve a 2-1 Yankees triumph.
This was the nine-year anniversary of the last time Rivera came off the disabled list, his fortitude part of his career genius, as well. Since his Opening Day blown save against the Rays, Rivera has pitched eight innings, yielded three hits, allowed no runs, walked none and struck out seven. Whatever Robertson is doing, Rivera does not look as if he is auditioning for retirement — even if there have been hints this is his last season.
“None of us wants to believe Mo is retiring and I will only believe it when I see it,” Teixeira said. “But no one around here is panicking [if this is Rivera’s last season]. That is because we know how good Robbie is.”
Robertson allowed just one homer last season, on Aug. 29 to Baltimore’s J.J. Hardy. That also was the last time he permitted a regular-season run. He has appeared in 24 games since, and has a 24 1/3-inning scoreless stretch, the longest active streak in the majors.
But even as he was becoming, arguably, the best setup man in the majors last year, Robertson was still averaging 4.7 walks per nine innings. This year, however, he has just three walks in 11 innings (2.5 per nine). He credits a continual maturation when it comes to focus.
“I am getting better at it,” Robertson said of locking in from the outset of appearances. “But I have to do even better.”
He can hardly improve on his strikeout ability. His career mark of 12.2 whiffs per nine innings is the best among active pitchers. And, much like Rivera with his cutter, Robertson mainly thrives with one pitch. Yes, he will mix in a breaking ball. But he lives with his fastball. Studies have suggested his exaggerated long stride provides the illusion his 91-94-mph fastball is even hotter. And he also has some natural movement on the pitch. Maybe not Rivera’s cut, but something that keeps him consistently off the sweet spot.
“He has a disappearing fastball,” Teixeira said. “He is overmatching good major league fastball hitters in fastball counts with fastballs. That is not easy to do.”
Neither will be replacing Rivera. And, as manager Joe Girardi noted, no one is really going to know about the succession until the next guy blows a save or two, and everyone in the clubhouse and the stands sees how the new closer recovers from failure.
But short of actually doing the job, Robertson can hardly do more to suggest his readiness should Rivera actually exit after this season. He has pretty good Mo-mentum toward being the next Yankees closer.