Yankees’ Mariano Rivera Showing Signs Of Being Human

Mariano Rivera did something he’s never done before: blow a third consecutive save. But that just shows how remarkable he has been. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Mariano Rivera took the hill in the ninth inning on Sunday, donning pinstripes on a sunny day in New York, looking to shut the door as he’s done so many times during his remarkable career. But this was not the Rivera the game of baseball is used to witnessing. The best closer–and one of the best pitchers–the sport has ever seen entered the series finale with the Detroit Tigers having blown two consecutive saves. He was staked a two-run lead, made possible in large part to a terrific running catch by Brett Gardner to rob Torii Hunter in the eighth, and was looking to keep from losing the lead in three straight outings. This is his 19th and final season, and that would’ve been a first.

That Gardner’s eighth-inning catch caught base-runner Austin Jackson napping and resulted in an inning-ending double-play, Tigers’ hitting savant Miguel Cabrera was forced to mosey from the on-deck circle back into the dugout. Had Jackson not thought Gardner dropped the ball upon crashing into the center-field wall, Cabrera would’ve been on base with a chance to tie the game. As it was, he still managed to make a resounding contribution. Two days after launching a tying two-run homer off Rivera, he crushed a 2-2 cutter over the right-field wall to pull Detroit within one. The pitch Rivera threw that fell amongst the fans wasn’t necessarily a mistake; it was a testament to just how good Cabrera is. A cutter two batters later to Victor Martinez, however, was unfortunately placed. Martinez scolded the offering into the second deck for a shocking tying blast. All Rivera could do was muster a frustration-filled, bewildered smile as the Tigers DH rounded the bases. It happened: a third straight blown save.

Miguel Cabrera Is Not Of This World

Miguel Cabrera hasn’t literally knocked the cover off the ball, but he’s done just about everything else to it. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

In the 1984 film The Natural, reporter Max Mercy, played by Robert Duvall, sits in the press box marveling at Roy Hobbs, Robert Redford’s character and home-run masher, and says to a colleague, “Anything he wants to hit, he hits.” When Jeff Francoeur came up with the Atlanta Braves as a 21-year-old in 2005 and immediately tormented opposing pitchers, Sports Illustrated forever doomed the right-fielder by displaying him on the cover with the headline: “The Natural … can anyone be this good?” Both stories relate to Detroit Tigers star Miguel Cabrera. Anything he wants to hit, he hits, and he is this good.

Cabrera, 30, is most feared hitter in the game, and he showed why in Detroit’s series against the New York Yankees. First, on Friday, he clubbed one of Mariano Rivera’s infamous cut-fastballs over the center-field fence in the ninth for a game-tying two-run blast, and then took liftoff again on Saturday. It wasn’t that he went deep for the 34th time, coming in the third inning off Phil Hughes, it was how he did so. The first pitch of the at-bat was a fastball located well off the plate outside. Cabrera, who has power to all fields, tried to go with the offering and hit it to right-field, only to foul it off instead. Next, Hughes thought it best to mix it up location-wise and try to run a fastball inside, hoping to tie him up and jam him. He put it where he wanted to, with the ball fired in at least six inches off the plate tailing towards Cabrera’s thigh, but the Venezuelan veteran, with the quickest of bat speeds, turned on the pitch and laced it into the left-field seats. Far from a mistake from Hughes, his intention, in fact, and yet a home-run was the result.

After Cabrera rounded the bases to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead, Detroit announcers Rod Allen and Mario Impemba were in awe of his ability. “He just makes your jaw drop,” Allen said. “Not just the fans, the players. Somebody needs to tell him this is the big leagues.” Added Impempa, “He may need another league.”

After trade to contender, Scutaro a hitting machine for World Series-leading Giants

Soon-to-be 37-year-old Marco Scutaro has done it all for the San Francisco Giants, a team two wins away from winning the World Series. (AP Photo/The Sacramento Bee, Jose Luis Villegas)

After a horrendous finish to the 2011 season, the Boston Red Sox had some decisions to make. They were nearing the luxury tax threshold, and exercising the third-year option of his contract meant adding $7.6 million to their payroll. Doing this was immediately regretted, and the team traded the 36-year-old Venezuelan shortstop to the Colorado Rockies for pennies on the dollar as a salary dump. Little did they know that eight months later, following a mid-season trade, Scutaro would be holding the NLCS MVP trophy in San Francisco after leading his team to the World Series.

The shortstop put up modest numbers with the Rockies this season, hitting .271 with a .321 on-base percentage in 95 games. He was among the top contact hitters in the game, striking out only 35 times in 377 at-bats, and was sought after prior to the trade deadline. With Colorado out of contention, the front office put Scutaro on the block and assured him he would be moved to a contender. That team, on July 28th, was the Giants. And since, he has done everything but literally knock the cover off the ball.

San Francisco needed infield help, and Scutaro could be had for cheap. They got more than they could have asked for–production that probably even surprised the veteran. Over the final two months of the season for the Giants, he hit an incredible .362 with a .383 on base percentage. He had 88 hits in 61 games, drove in 44 runs, scored 40 times, and only struck out 14 times. With his eighth organization and seventh major league team in 10 years, he was on a mission, striving to be part of his first championship team.

“It’s why you play the game,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said to the Boston Globe. “We have a few guys who have played their whole career to play in the World Series, and it’s pretty nice because of how hungry they are to be here.”