Last Night's Action: 500

Photograph of Mark Teixeira, Derek Jeter, and Alex Rodriguez (13) celebrating after closer Mariano Rivera, right, earned his 500th save by Kathy Willens/AP

Mariano Rivera achieved two big career milestones in Sunday’s 4-2 Yankees’ win. He got his 500th save, becoming only the second player to reach that mark and he got his first career RBI.

As great as Rivera is, the Mets sabotaged themselves again, giving the Yankees three of their four runs on mistakes. In the first, Nick Evans made a mental error and a physical error. The mental error was trying to throw Derek Jeter out at third instead of taking the routine out at first on a grounder by Nick Swisher. Swisher would score on a double by Mark Teixeira. The physical error was dropping the relay throw on a double play ball off the bat of Robinson Cano. That left a runner on third with only one out, instead of two, and Jorge Posada followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0 Yankees.

The Mets battled back, cutting it to 3-2 with two runs in the fourth and that was all the scoring for both teams, despite several opportunities, until the ninth. The Mets brought in their closer, Frankie Rodriguez, to keep things close and his defense let him down again. Jorge Posada lifted a pop up to shallow center that Alex Cora and Fernando Martinez let fall. Posada was erased by a Melky Cabrera ground out, but Brett Gardner walked putting runners on first and second. Rodriguez got Johnny Damon out and that brought Derek Jeter to the plate with two outs and Mariano Rivera on deck. The Mets started pitching to Jeter, but then realized that Jeter might be a slightly better hitter than Rivera and intentionally walked him.

The only problem was that Rodriguez lost the strike zone and Rivera drew a bases loaded walk, earning him a RBI. He then went back to his normal job and set the Mets down in the ninth to get the Yankees a sweep of the series.

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By Peter Trinkle in News on June 29, 2009 12:09 AM

Comments [rss]

MFM

Actually, it was Daniel Murphy playing first who made those two errors, not Nick Evans.

whitecastlerock

The Washington Fucking Nationals have a better record against the Yankees. Injuries or not, the Mets played scared, looked like shit and fielded a team that is an embarrassment. Omar Minaya has done a pretty shitty job assembling this nightmare.

dr zippy

Yes, Minaya should have known that Reyes, Beltran and Delgado would all be out because of injuries at the same exact time. I'm not making excuses, the Mets have been pretty listless, but if they had three of their four best hitters in the lineup they would have done better this weekend and would almost be ahead of the Phillies.

whitecastlerock

Knowing that his best hitters are out of the lineup he has done shit to replace them. Nothing. Why? He has given bloated contracts to shitty players-pure shit—Oliver Perez? Castillo? So now he is stuck with that AA lineup. He should be fired... They have missed the playoffs with horrible choke jobs and there is zero accountability... Oh yeah he canned Willie Randolph. Lotta good that has done them... Yes if they had fewer injuries they may have been more competitive. However they had these players in the lineup last year and it was the bullpen's fault. There is always something with Los Mets-something bad.

Mr Mel

I'm beginning to wonder if they'll ever come back.

r1b2

Congrats to Mariano, huge milestone. And the RBI was a sweet cherry on top.

Reality is that the Mets are injury-depleted offensively. If they're going to make THAT many mistakes on top of it, they have no reason to expect any different outcome.

r1b2

Congrats to Mariano, huge milestone. And the RBI was a sweet cherry on top.

Reality is that the Mets are injury-depleted offensively. If they're going to make THAT many mistakes on top of it, they have no reason to expect any different outcome.