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.
