BALTIMORE — Anybody who has played with Mariano Rivera knows the baseball debt they owe him can never be paid in full.
The bundles of cash wrapped in postseason shares and World Series rings the Yankees have received during the Rivera Era wouldn’t have been as large or as gaudy without the future Hall of Fame closer.
Yesterday, however, the Yankees made a small donation to the debt service when they rallied to beat the Orioles, 6-3, in 11 innings at Camden Yards in front of 25,051.
Three runs in the 11th on infield singles and sloppy fielding by the Orioles allowed the Yankees to exhale after Rivera flushed his second save in as many games.
“It’s behind, you can’t do nothing,” Rivera said of blowing consecutive save chances for the first time since April 2007. “We won the game and tomorrow is a new day.”
Had Rafael Soriano not been stricken by a tight lower back Saturday, Rivera would have been limited to just the ninth inning yesterday. But with runners at the corners, two outs and the Yankees leading, 3-2 in the eighth inning, Joe Girardi called for Rivera. It was the first time this year the manager asked Rivera for four outs.
“I was prepared for that,” Rivera said. “I hadn’t pitched [since Tuesday].”
Rivera gave up a long drive to Luke Scott, but watched as left fielder Brett Gardner make a back-to-the plate catch to end the eighth.
“I wasn’t sure, it carried a bit,” Gardner said of the grab that helped negate an 0-for-5, four-strikeout day at the plate.
In the ninth, thanks to umpire Angel Campos’ ever-shrinking strike zone, Rivera issued a 10-pitch walk to Adam Jones leading off the inning.
“There were close pitches that could have gone either way and he just called them balls,” said Rivera, whose final pitch to Jones was far too close to take and produced a grin from the closer as the Orioles outfielder trotted to first.
Strikeouts of Mark Reynolds and Matt Wieters put the Yankees within an out of victory, but pinch-hitter Jake Fox singled to right and the Orioles had runners at the corners.
Here, Nick Swisher, Robinson Cano and Russell Martin repaid a small part of that Rivera debt. Brian Roberts hit a bullet between a diving Mark Teixeira and the first base line that scored Jones with the tying run.
Pinch-runner Robert Andino attempted to score from first, but Swisher dug the ball out of the corner and made a good throw to Cano. Standing in shallow right field, Cano turned and fired to Martin, who slapped a tag on a sliding Andino to send the game into extra innings.
Following a scoreless 10th, when Jeter was thrown out at the plate, and a 40-minute rain delay in the top of the 11th with a full count on Cano, the Yankees plated three runs on hits by Cano, Martin, Derek Jeter, who was 4-for-6, and Curtis Granderson, who went 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs.
Cano opened with a double and stole third when Swisher failed to get a bunt down and the Orioles threw behind him at second.
“The only chance that I’ve got is to go to third,” said Cano, who scored the go-ahead run on Martin’s grounder to short that was scored a hit after being mishandled by Andino. “Everything worked out my way.”
After years of dominating the late innings, nothing bothers Rivera. So it wasn’t surprising to hear him say there is no reason to change a thing. Or attempt to upgrade one area.
“I don’t need to work on [anything],” Rivera said. “I have to keep pitching and continue fighting.”