Edition: U.S. / Global

Yankees' Bullpen, Especially Rivera, Fails to Get It Done

Published: April 9, 1997

Mariano Rivera joined the human race again tonight, showing that he is mortal as a closer and that he can mishandle save opportunities just like any other reliever in the ninth inning.

After Rivera's breakdown, the Yankees must have figured this would not be their night, and it was not. Jeff Nelson replaced Rivera in the 11th and floundered in the 12th as Gary DiSarcina's grounder behind second scored Jim Edmonds and vaulted the Angels to a 10-9 victory.

Edmonds doubled to left to start the inning and advanced to third on Jim Leyritz's sacrifice bunt, and then the Yankees purposely walked the bases loaded. The Yankees could not turn a double play on DiSarcina's ball, so Nelson took the loss.

After going 86-1 when leading a game after eight innings in 1996, the Yankees lost when ahead after eight in their fourth try this season. Does anyone still wonder if the loss of John Wetteland will adversely impact the Yankees? But the reason they lost tonight is because Rivera, who is supposed to be the sure thing in the bullpen, was not.

On a sloppy night of baseball, the Yankees learned tonight that Kenny Rogers is still an enigma, that Derek Jeter is still exceptional and that their bullpen is still erratic in some situations and still excellent in others. They learned that Rivera will take a walk on the wild side, just as John Wetteland used to.

Leading by 9-8 in the ninth and looking for his third save, Rivera allowed Orlando Palmeiro's single to left and watched him scamper to second on DiSarcina's bunt. Darrin Erstad's looping single over Jeter did not score the tying run, but Jack Howell's sacrifice fly to Mark Whiten in left was deep enough to deliver Palmeiro and extend the game to extra innings. Whiten's throw home was wide to the left.

With Brian Boehringer providing the bridge to Rivera that is so crucial with two scoreless innings, the Yankees thought they had erased a mistake-filled sixth inning when Rogers, David Weathers, Mike Stanton and even Jeter combined to enable the Angels to erupt for three runs and an 8-7 lead.

Joe Girardi doubled home two runs in the top of the seventh to catapult the Yankees ahead by one run, and then the catcher had the best seat in the stadium to watch Boehringer dominate Anaheim by whiffing three and retiring six straight in the seventh and the eighth. But Girardi also watched Rivera encounter difficulty in the ninth.

Is there a player doing a superior job to Jeter? Even though his high throw to first on Garret Anderson's potential double play grounder prolonged the sixth and allowed the Angels to score the tying and go ahead run, he has played remarkably. With three hits in his first six at bats against the Angels, Jeter had 16 hits in his last 24 at-bats. Everything that flies off his bat is a laser and he scored twice and drove in two more runs tonight.

Paul O'Neill homered in the fifth and Wade Boggs also went deep in the sixth as the Yankees built a 7-5 lead, but Rogers could not hold his third advantage of the game and Torre had to be perturbed. Rogers made a late debut for the second straight season, although he was pitching 15 games earlier this time, and he was typically up and down as he allowed six hits, seven runs and two homers in five and a third innings. Rogers also retired the side three other times, and that is why he is an enigma.

After Edmond's one-out, run-scoring single in the sixth, Weathers replaced Rogers and gave up a single to Leyritz, the former Yankee. Stanton got Anderson to ground to second for a potential inning-ending double play, but Tino Martinez had to reach for Jeter's throw, and Edmonds scored to make it 7-7. Stanton walked Todd Green and DiSarcina, the No. 9 batter, fisted an 0-2 fastball over second base for a single that made it 8-7.

Rogers pitched splendidly for the entire spring and allowed only two earned runs in 20 innings for a 0.90 earned run average, the lowest in the major leagues.

So what did he do in the first start that counted? He was scorched for three runs in the second inning and helped prove how little the spring starts really mean. Leyritz and Dave Hollins each blasted two-run homers off Rogers, who was surprisingly joined by Rivera in struggling tonight.


MARIANO RIVERA pitched one and two-thirds innings to save Monday's 5-3 victory, the second time he had pitched more than one inning in three appearances.

JOHN WETTELAND, who is more durable than Rivera, pitched more than one inning only six times in 62 games last season, so JOE TORRE is setting a risky precedent. ''I don't want to do it,'' Torre said. ''But until we figure out what our bullpen is going to be leading up to him, I'm probably going to be tempted more times than I want to be.'' TIM RAINES (left hamstring) hit a homer and stole a base in two at-bats in a rehab stint at Class A Tampa.