Daily Archives: July 25, 2005

In his latest column, Ken Rosenthal writes:

Is anyone noticing that the Yankees’ Mariano Rivera is enjoying his best season as a closer? Rivera allowed two earned runs in his first two appearances, then only two in his next 36. His 0.89 ERA would represent a career best, and his 10.18 strikeouts per nine innings would be his highest rate since 1996, when he was John Wetteland’s setup man…

You bet we’ve noticed it. I’m just too superstitious to want to write about it myself. My favorite Yankee next to Bernie Williams, Rivera is one of the few players whose numbers I get very precious about. I want him to do well so badly it almost hurts. Given the nature of his job, Rivera’s ERA could ballon with just a few bad outings, but it is now down to 0.85. Since the first two outings agains the Red Sox, it is 0.44. He’s done made us proud…again.

David Pinto wonders if the Yanks should try to trade Jason Giambi now that the slugger’s value is as high as it has been in a long time.

With their ace relievers Scot Shields and Fransico Rodriguez unavailable for yesterday’s game, the Yanks just had to find a way to take the final game of their long road trip. Having lost the first three to the Angels, Mike Mussina responded with an excellent performance. He was matched by Jarrod Washburn, who changed speeds well and allowed just one hit through six innings. Chone Figgins murdered the Yanks all weekend and got the Angels on the board quickly in the first inning (walk, stolen base, ground out, ground out=run scored). Figgins would follow with three more hits. Dag.

The score didn’t change until the seventh. With one out, Alex Rodriguez hit a hard ground ball down the third base line. Figgins not only snagged it–preventing a sure double–but he made an impressive throw to first that almost nipped the hustling Rodriguez. It was a closer play than I expected it to be. Hideki Matsui who was 0-2 on the afternoon (on three pitches), followed and plastered a home run to right center field. Washburn stayed in the game and the Yanks scored another run later in the inning when he failed to cover first base properly.

The Angels chased Mussina in the bottom of the seventh and had runners on first and second (Kennedy and Figgens) with just one man out. Tanyon Sturtze was in the game for New York and the Angels put on the hit-and-run with Daren Erstad at the plate. Erstad slapped a ground ball directly down the third base line. Alex Rodriguez, moving to the bag as the runners were moving, fielded the ball, stepped on the bag and side-armed the ball to first for the double play. It was a bit of good fortune the Yankees sorely needed.

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